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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
BOARD OF REGENTS OF 


THE SMITHSONIAN 
INSTITUTION 


SHOWING THE 


OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND 
CONDITION OF THE INSTITUTION 
FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30 


1919 


(Publication 2590) 


WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1921 


LETTER 
FROM THE 
SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 


SUBMITTING 


THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE 
INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1919. 


SMITHSONIAN INsTITUTION, 
Washington, September 24, 1920. 
To the Congress of the United States: 

In accordance with section 55983 of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States, I have the honor, in behalf of the Board of Regents, 
to submit to Congress the annual report of the operations, expendi- 
tures, and condition of the Smithsonian Institution for the year end- 
ing June 30, 1919. I have the honor to be, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. ve C. Ravens, 
Acting Secretary. 


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CONTENTS. 


Letter from the secretary, submitting the annual report of the Regents 

(EUR GIT CPE FETS SS aS EE PLE eee aR organ emma GET UNL Or URS pe RIN MRI We ede 
SUGMIECHIES OF PHETCDOPE eee ey ee tae ee 
LOSES ODE OLS 124 MRS or RE ae I A ca Se 1 5 at OE 5 TER Oa 
General subjects.of the annual report -2. 2-342 ee oe a 
Ofmeialsof the Institution and its: branches. 2232228 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 


PhecSniithsonian IMstitution= 2220 ta." Se vin tne ta ingen 
NYS DISS EN GUTSY OB TYE Ty alts Ri Ng SR LS A en ed UR 
WM EVE BYOPE IG LON bead Gal Ste 25 MTN 3 aca RN le li ee se 
Caner iCONSIOCE ALI ONS] ce 2 epee el os i yee eee Sk Dae eras 
EASTON ON CSAS ON CAS eI A HAS tS ORLY 1 SEY SN i LAR SI NEN NINA 
Researches and explorations: 
Geological explorations in the Canadian Rockies_______________ 
Geological work in the Middle Atlantic States__________________ 
The Collins-Garner French Congo Expedition__________________ 
ihe SMiehsonian: Atrican HxXpeginlon Cus Le 
Botanical explorations in Hcuador__________ ae aay heer das Nea RA 
Cinchona BotanienheNtaw ones. flee ees ee La ee 
Anthropological work in Peru and Bolivia_____________________ 
The proposed Roosevelt Memorial_______ Ape le nen ana fe pea 
PVOSCHTED NC OLPOPALIONS wien mmonl cs yw noch ous a 
Popular Screntinie: Jecturese.s ) 2. Sane se a es iy SiiNt aa as one AS 
Congress of Americanists________________ tigen} aD gi UMA te 
TESTO GEST SY OS URS TE ll Sr i al De ORL Ea eR FU NST FIO 
OAT) SR EN i ae I HNL a IE POR SE) ISA A i SR 
JQ EN Savas 9 LORIN BT YET ae ss YS ee NEON GRC ieee 
REA O be AMMO CANN HEY CMT LOL ysis eae) eu tenis Na ees LR eee eee ea 
inpernational HWxchangeg. ee fe SS TTA NES A aie eA 
IAN BEAST eUST hi SA1Oy OS PR i) ea i a I ets MORN ST A SY aE RI 
mapa sical (OUSCIyaLOry ate i Co a 
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature________________________ 
TENSOR UD YEA AO Me ARIA AS I NN So DSLR RN (NS 
Appendix 1. Report on the United States National Museum_____________ 
2. Report on the Bureau of American HEthnology..___________ 
3. Report on the International Hxchanges_______-_________ __ 
4, Report on the National Zoological Park__._.____._________ 
5 
6 
7 


. Report on the Astrophysical Observatory__________________ 
SEE EN OOT tees OOTD EEE Cha UR LTD Vict cas at coe aL ge rt are 
. Report on the International Catalogue of Scientific 

Tp eee oe SU sae aR SE Bo a AT CN A ce HR 
SSORCDOLEE FON: DUO LIEAtIOM Se les ey AUR Rae eee ea est aa 


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND REGENTS. 


ReEpOLeO HI XeCCULIVE “COMMNIIEECE 22 Neo Rn Gnu iis Th ctl Sale ye 
Proceedings) of Board of Regents 22) 220 oe 


VI CONTENTS. 


GENERAL APPENDIX, 


Modern theories of the spiral nebulae, by Heber D. Curtis________-_---_~ 
A determination of the deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field, 
from observations made at the total eclipse of May 29, 1919, by Sir 
Ro Weibyson, A. S.pHadineion, andy!) aera som as hee ee ee 
Wireless: telephony; by .N;H Slaughters 22 28 ee ee eee 
Radium and the electron, by Sir Ernest Rutherford___-_-______________ 
The “HD-4.” A 70-miler with remarkable possibilities developed at 
Dr. Graham Bell’s laboratories on the Bras d’Or Lakes, by William 
Sp EIS OY GLU Wg 0 Deol 6) 6 Yetta a spr ae es 5 eth a eo boo 
Natural resources in their relation to military supplies, by Arthur D. 
1 Cpl Ke resem a a a ae Nalgene pea ih su idiphe Ms Lh late a ara iio cee se iicpeyeag elf 
Glass and some of its problems, by Sir Herbert Jackson_-__-_-_-____-___ 
The functions and ideals of a national geological survey, by F. L. Ran- 


The influence of cold in stimulating the growth of plants, by Frederick 
Aap OOO KS RAN A Wh et NE IS Soe RS NG UAL OTS ER tN 
Floral aspects of British Guiana, by A. S. Hitchcock_______-___________ 
Milpa agriculture, a primitive tropical system, by O. F. Cook ___-______ 
On the extinction of the mammoth, by H. Neuville-____--________________ 
A preliminary study of the relation between geographical distribution 
and migration, with special reference to the Palaearctic region, by 
3 EME (NAYES BA 0 W250 A A RS NS un Ua Ne Sapna ey edi lc 
The necessity of State action for the protection of wild birds, by Walter 
1 SDP Gr oy Ue mee i ie Fy ee en la aaa eh one iene Sy 
Glimpses of desert bird life in the Great Basin, by Harry C. Oberholser__ 
The Division of Insects in the United States National Museum, by J. M. 
PENIICG BiG) epee gr ss en ibaa Nani A peal sna inn Atlee Aaa NAN ea Rete e Nk 
The seventeen-year locust, by R. H. Snodgrass__--____-____-__-_____-___ 
Hncomolosy sand: thenwat, byl OF ELOWATE 22 She 
Two types of southwestern cliff houses, by J. Walter Fewkes____________ 
On the race history and facial characteristics of the aboriginal Ameri- 
ELEN ONS Hn) Oar Vege fev) Era wo epee Nar pn ea agg YR Nye Toe AUP ae 
The opportunity for American archeological research in Palestine, by 
AEDT YY OS Ne IVETE TUNEL Yosser ay ge cer eel ee Ree 
The differentiation of mankind into racial types, by Arthur Keith_______ 
The exploration of Manchuria, by Arthur de C. Sowerby_-_-_---------_- 
The origin and beginnings of the Czechoslovak people, by Jindfich 
JA eel 20 fy ee patie mie nal asyacetee ki meee Aimee bbl rnchshurmahOrl pines cy 2Mnbe sul obE il thn Npinssats ely gi 
Geographic education in America, by Albert Perry Brigham ____-_______ 
Progress in national land reclamation in the United States, by C. A. 
1 BSC Hl pepe pea. fain Wace fet yc add ci ce at abl deg Mins bend tude gs SNe 
Richard Rathbun: by Marcus sen a mine eee ee eee 
A great chemist; Sir William Ramsay, by Ch. Moureu-_-_---_-.-.--_.—_.. 


LIST OF 


Defiection of light (Dyson) : 
Plate 1_ uy 


Wireless telephony (Slaughter) : 
JENS Weir) Reet ep SCO ONE I a ea 
TOS eae se Oe Le aS 
TEARS eich tats (Garg we ee tena pe 


The “HD 4” (Nutting) : 
Plate Mesa beitee, ONS Sua ad 
LEABEW TENS CU cs ea ao OR aA 
Plate gyn soe eto ed 


Cold and growth 
(Coville) : 

1 SIE oes hh02 b= (seal ts Wi Ce a 

TEAS EES) ASH AC ea eee eae 

PTAs tOm iy oe eee ee 

Plate —2 0) eee es 


Flora of British Guiana (Hitch- 
cock): 
TEA I revi a tel pian CRS AnD St 


Milpa agriculture (Cook) : 
EOS) ny) Se a es 


Hxtinction of the mammoth 
(Neuville) : 
Plates 1-3 


Division of insects (Aldrich) : 
TRI Weep) Es) SUR Me EIEN ade aan aA 


of plants 


Page. 


133 


184 
188 
190 


205 
206 
208 


282 
284 
286 
290 


306 


326 


PLATES. 


Seventeen-year locust 
grass) : 
Y ICCTA 5 Uae Mana ear nnle i ee 
Plate 2 __ Re sliea cual as 
GE ICSE| NWS 5 ane AS Ba srt ec ora 
d Bellf ay oe yinca Cater a a Cp RAL OM at aay 
Ply) ewe 
Cliff houses (Fewkes) : 
PLATES CDE Lm R A Nt ee 
aes) tap Gye ks ees ae 


Aboriginal Americans (Holmes) : 


Plates Wiese! wel cus oo nal 
Palestine (Montgomery) : 

Ud 42H WSU lyoko ph lnbia ke eNaahy ine 

ELCs oe ip Dieeaie RRND LORS a LE 

later Sikee Seek ts sab ie 
Manchuria (Sowerby) : 

SAIC Ti ens iag Ls ARN Nee LOR ane aN 

PLACES ot Ae see Nonna 


Czechoslovak people (Matiegka) : 


Da at evan [5 Se a SR AL 
J CUE Tg ets eA yo et 2 ene 
Progress in reclamation (Bis- 
sell) : 
PTAC yetel eae eh a ee 
PALES) Get er Be 
d GehIEs Wat ey tor Coa (0 aca de A aes 
Richard Rathbun (Benjamin) : 
1 eel Ee SNM Lap UL RA ee Eo 


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3 Lei LULD i iohD 


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LENA etait eed 


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CHILLS 


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vier bie rors 
Feo aot e 


ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN 
INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1919. 


SUBJECTS. 


1. Annual report of the secretary, giving an account of the opera- 
tions and condition of the Institution for the year ending June 30, 
1919, with statistics of exchanges, etc. 

2. Report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents, 
exhibiting the financial affairs of the Institution, including a state- 
ment of the Smithsonian fund, and receipts and expenditures for the 
year ending June 30, 1919. 

3. Proceedings of the Board of Regents for the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1919. 

4. General appendix, comprising a selection of miscellaneous me- 
moirs of interest to collaborators and correspondents of the Insti- 
tution, teachers, and others engaged in the promotion of knowledge. 
These memoirs relate chiefly to the calendar year 1919. 

Ix 


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THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 


June 30, 1919. 


Presiding officer ex officio.—Woopvrow WILsoN, President of the United States. 
Chancellor.—Epwarp DouGLAss WHITE, Chief Justice of the United States. 
Members of the Institution: 
Wooprow WILson, President of the United States. 
THoMAS R. MARSHALL, Vice President of the United States. 
Epwarp DovuGLAss WHITE, Chief Justice of the United States: 
Rospert LAnsine, Secretary of State. 
CARTER GLASS, Secretary of the Treasury. 
NEWTON DIEHE BAKER, Secretary of War. 
A. MitcHELL PstMER, Attorney General. 
ALBERT SIDNEY BURLESON, Postmaster General. 
JOSEPHUS DANIELS, Secretary of the Navy. 
FRANKLIN KNIGHT LANE, Secretary of the Interior. 
Davip FRANKLIN Houston, Secretary of Agriculture. 
WILLIAM Cox REDFIELD, Secretary of Commerce. 
WILLIAM BaucHop WILSON, Secretary of Labor. 
Regents of the Institution: 
EpwaArpD DovcLAss Wuite, Chief Justice of the United States, Chancellor. 
THomas R. MarsHAtt, Vice President of the United States. 
Henry Casot Lopcr, Member of the Senate. 
CHartes 8. THomas, Member of the Senate. 
Scott Frrris, Member of the House of Representatives. 
LEMUEL P. PapceTt, Member of the House of Representatives. 
Frank L. GREENE, Member of the House of Representatives. 
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, citizen of Washington, D, C. 
GerorcE GRAY, citizen of Delaware. 
CHARLES I’, CHOATE, Jr., citizen of Massachusetts. 
JOHN B. HENDERSON, citizen of Washington, D. C. 
Henry WHITE, citizen of Maryland. 
Rovert S. BRooKines, citizen of Missouri. 
Hxrecutive committee.—GEORGE GRAY, ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, HENRY WHITE. 
Secretary of the Institution—CHARLES D. WALCOTT. 
Assistant Secretary.—C. G. ABBOT. 
Chief Clerk.—HApry W: Dorsey. 
Accounting and disbursing. agent.—W. I, ADAMS, 
EHditor.—W. P. TRUE. 
Assistant librarian.—PavL BRocKET?. 
Property clerk.—J. H. HIt1, 


XI 


XII ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


Keeper ex officio —Cuartes D. Watcort, Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. 

Administrative assistant to the Secretary, in charge.—W. Dr C. RAVENEL. 

Head curators —Wi11AM H. Hotmes, LEonNHARD STEJNEGER, G. P. MERRILL, 

Curators.—Pavut BarrscH, R. 8. Basster, T. T. BeLore, F. W. Ciarke, F. V. 
CoviLtz, W. H. Dati, CuHester G. GILBERT, WALTER Hoven, L. O. Howarp, ALES 
HrprréKa, New M. Jupp, Freprrick L. Lewron, Gerrit S. Miter, Jr., JosepH E. 
Poaur, Ropert Rieway. . 

Associate curators.—J. M. Atpricu, J. C. Crawrorp, C. W. Gi~morE, W. R. 
Maxon, CHARLES W. RicHmonp, J. N. Rosz, Davin WHITE. 

Curator, National Gallery of Art—W. H. HoLMEs. 

Chief of correspondence and documents.—H. 8. Bryant. 

Disbursing agent.—W. I. ADAMS. 

Superintendent of buildings and labor.—J. 8. GOLDSMITH. 

Editor.—Marcus BENJAMIN. 

Assistant librarian.—N. P. SCUDDER. 

Photographer.—L. W. BEESON. 

Registrar._S. C. Brown. 

Property clerk.—W. A. KNOWLES. 

Engineer.—C, R. DENMARK. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


Chief. —J. WALTER FEWKES. 

Ethnologists—Joun P. Harrineton, J. N. B. Hewitt, Francis La FLESCHE, 
TRUMAN MICHELSON, JAMES Moonry, JoHN R. SwANTON. 

Honorary philologist—FRanz Boas, 

Editor.— STANLEY SEARLES. 

Librarian.— Lia LEARY. 

Illustrator.—DrE LANcEY GILL. 


INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 
Chief clerk.—C. W. SHOEMAKER. 
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 


Superintendent.—NEpD HOLLISTER. 
Assistant Superintendent.—A. B. Baker. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 


Director—C. G. ABBOT. 
Aid.—F.. E. Fowte, Jr. 
Assistant.—L. B. ALDRICH. 


REGIONAL BUREAU FOR THE UNITED STATES, INTERNATIONAL 
CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 


Assistant in charge.—Lronarp C. GUNNELL. 


REPORT 


OF THE 


SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
Cuartes D. Watcott, 


FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1919 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 

GENTLEMEN : I have the honor to submit herewith an annual report 
on the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and its 
branches during the year ending June 30,1919. The activities of the 
Institution proper are reviewed in the first part of the report, together 
with a brief summary of the affairs of each of the several branches. 
In the appendices will be found more detailed accounts of the work 
of the National Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the 
International Exchange Service, the National Zoological Park, the 
Astrophysical Observatory, the Smithsonian Library, the Inter- 
national Catalogue of Scientific Literature, and an account of the 
publications of the Institution and its branches. The reports of the 
Museum and Bureau of Ethnology are published in greater detail 
in separate volumes. 


THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
THE ESTABLISHMENT, 


The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress, in 
1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 
land, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of 
America “to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion 
of knowledge among men.” In receiving the property and acccept- 
ing the trust Congress determined that the Federal Government 
was without; authority to administer the trust directly, and therefore 
constituted an “establishment,” whose statutory members are “the 
President, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of the 
executive departments.” 


THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 


The business of the Institution is conducted by a Board of Regents 
composed of “the Vice President, the Chief Justice of the United 
States, and three Members of the Senate, and three Members of the 

1 


2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


House of Representatives, together with six other persons other than 
Members of Congress, two of whom shall be resident in the city of 
Washington and the other four shall be inhabitants of some State, 
but no two of them of the same State.” The regents elect one of 
their number as chancellor, usually the Chief Justice, who is the pre- 
siding officer of the board, and elect a suitable person as secretary of 
the Institution, who is also secretary of the board and the executive 
officer and director of the Institution’s activities. 

The changes in personnel of the board during the year were the 
appointment of George Gray, citizen of Delaware, to succeed him- 
self; the appointment of Robert S. Brookings, citizen of Missouri, 
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles W. Fairbanks. The 
roll of regents on June’30, 1919, was as follows: Edward D. White, 
Chief Justice of the United States, chancellor; ‘Thomas R. Marshall, 
Vice President of the United States; Henry Cabot Lodge, Member of 
the Senate; Charles S. Thomas, Member of the Senate; Scott’ Ferris, 
Member of the House of Representatives; Lemuel P. Padgett, Mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives; Frank L. Greene, Member of the 
House of Representatives; Alexander Graham Bell, citizen of Wash- 
ington, D. C.; George Gray, citizen of Delaware; Charles F. Choate, 
jr., citizen of Massachusetts; John B. Henderson, citizen of Washing- 
ton, D. C.; Henry White, citizen of Maryland; and Robert S. Brook- 
ings, ities of Missouri. 

The board held its annual meeting on December 12, 1918. The 
proceedings of that meeting, as also the annual arlancial report of 
the executive committee, have been printed, as usual, for the use of 
the regents, while such important matters acted upon as are of public 
interest are reviewed under appropriate heads in the report of the 
secretary. A detailed statement of disbursements from the Govern- 
ment appropriations under the direction of the Institution for the 
maintenance of the National Museum, the National Zoological Park, 
and other branches will be submitted to Congress by the secretary in 
the usual manner in compliance with the law. 


GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 


In addition to the usual activities and routine duties, the scientific 
staff of the Institution continued, until the day of the signing of 
the armistice, to assist the Geeetkimertt's in every way possible toward 
the successful prosecution of the war. The Museum staff were in 
constant touch with Army and Navy officials, furnishing much tech- 
nical information, and the staff ofthe Astrophysical Observatory con- 
ducted numerous valuable researches. Mr. L. B. Aldrich, of the ob- 
servatory, carried out successful experiments.on the pressure exerted 
by the wind upon projectiles, at the request.of the.Coast Artillery 
Station at Fortress Monroe. Assistant Secretary Abbot and Mr. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 3 


Aldrich together worked’ on the problem of searchlights for Army 
use, and, after numerous experiments, they were able to improve the 
existing searchlights, both by. diminution of size and. increase in light- 
ing power. The new form of searchlight was constructed and used in 
France several months before the close of hostilities. 

At the time of the signing of the armistice several valuable devices 
were being perfected by Dr. Abbot and the observatory staff, among 
them a recoilless'gun devised by Dr. R. H. Goddard, of Clark College, 
which was a development of work being done by Haiti for the Insti- 
tution on a multiple-charge rocket intended to reach great heights for 
meteorological observations; an instrument for determining geo- 
graphical Seer: from an airplane or a ship at sea without refer- 
ence to landmarks, whether’ celestial or terrestrial; and a rotating 
projectile constructed on the turbine principle to be fired from a 
smoothbore gun, which would have been specially valuable for use in 
trench mortars. 

On December 16,1918, Dr. C. G. Abbot, Director of the Astrophysi- 
cal Observatory, was appointed assistant secretary of the Institution 
to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. F. W. True some years 
ago. In addition to his administrative duties in connection with the 
Institution, Dr. Abbot will be in charge of the Smithsonian Library, 
the International Exchange Service, and the Astrophysical Obser- 
‘vatory. 

The work of the National Research Council, of which your secre- 
tary was first vice chairman, was continued under the war organi- 
zation during the first part of the year.. After the signing of 
the armistice every effort was concentrated on the organization: of 
the council upon a peace basis, and this was accomplished very suc- 
cessfully before the close of the year under a definite plan in accord- 
ance with an Executive order’ from the President of the United 
States requesting the National Academyof Sciences to perpetuate 
the National Research Council. | 

The secretary of the Institution was also chairman of the executive 
committee of the national advisory committee for aeronautics, which 
performed. work-of great value to the Government on airplane pro- 
duction and improvements. 3 

An important peace-time event was the organizing just: before the 
‘close of the year of an extensive exploring expedition to the heart 
of Africa, The material collected will come to the Institution to 
be used for purposes:.of comparison in working up the results. of 
“various expeditions to the Dark Continent by Col. Roosevelt, Paul 
_Rainey, and others. * 

Bequests.—An important bequest was made to the Institution dur- 
ing the year by Mrs. Virginia Purdy Bacon, of New York, which 
will do much. toward extending our knowledge of the fauna of the 


4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


world. That portion of Mrs. Bacon’s will relating to the Institution 
reads as follows: 

(f) To Smithsonian Institute the sum of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), to be 
used in establishing a traveling scholarship, to be called the Walter Rathbone 
Bacon Scholarship for the study of the fauna of countries other than the 
United States of America; the incumbents to be designated by said Institute 
under such regulations as it may from time to time prescribe and to hold 
such scholarships not less than two years, and while holding such scholarship 
to conduct for said Institute investigations in the fauna of other countries 
under the direction of said Institute. | 


The terms of the will had not been executed at the close of the 


year. . 
FINANCES. 


The invested funds of the Institution are as follows: 
Deposited in the Treasury of the United States under authority 


o£ Gotigres§2. 52. sot! ota gos eel ed Efe ee Payoh phe $1, 000, 000. 00 
CONSOLIDATED FUND. 
Brooklyn Rapid Transit 5 per cent notes, due July 1, 1918______ 8, 528. 44 
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. 4 per cent collateral trust 
boends,,,due,,dvily Vj) 1929-27 3. teh ht aed Se ps eee 15, 680. 00 
Province of Manitoba 5 per cent gold debentures, due Apr. 1, 1922_ 1, 935. 00 
West Shore Railroad Co. guaranteed 4 per cent first mortgage 
bonds, due Jan. le 2oole a Pa pla acpi hil it. consid dala 37, 275. 00 
Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. first mortgage 5 per cent 
SON eho corn hs Uae OBO tae oa a A ae 5, 670. 00 
Wnited, States.Ginst. Liberty JO@AM 222 nS? Se Rn 200. 00 
United States second, Liberty loan eg 100. 00 
Wnited States “third” Lverly ddan ee ee 10, 150. 00 
United States fourth Liberty loan-_~_-~2_--~~__+-_-~---2__-_-__ 50. 00 
United States war-savings stamps, series of 1918-_-_-_----=-_-_ 100, 00 
PA GUUSEIMENES (PtP eee es ee kk ee 105. 94 
TOtalEBich: FR 5s)! Be NO EE aay (OPT OAR ON Leraetes 1, 074, 794. 38 


The sum invested for each specific fund and the manner in which 
the several investments were made is given in the following state- 
ment: 


"iressury.. [dated fana,| Total 
ShaavigeyeyalaqpbnG (So 22 Son soa oe oan Ee oneee oe Sou oS Ecos moSocueeESs $727, 640. 00 $984. 00 $728, 624. 00 
Sta bolhiundencs. Jew ene Mee cee ea ere eben deer wadan 500: 00 [e--- acon sn-0 500. 00 
Hamilton fund 22 1. AS Ee POR OL RIA 23500200 | Jee 2, 500. 00 
Hodgkins general fund. . .-..-.--+--s.-. Sete tere oe eearee> ee 116, 000.00 |. 37, 275.00 153, 275.00 
Hodgkins specific fund. - 0-20-5522 sos -65s2.0 deren ssteewe- = 100, 000. 00 |......---..- 100, 000. 00 
HOUSE ENG cere saeco meert ter aeee cae meena srianine= crise mace cere 590. 00 74. 00 664. 00 
Bby oryMund2t < $33 Tes SE. ee Rt OS. BOI 14,000:00 | 14, 824. 45 28, 824. 45 
AddisoniT.. Reid-fund.. fof": fared. 8 cath ee et Te 11,000.00 | 1,348.00 12,348.00 
Lucy T. and George W. Poorefund..............--2----2-2--+ 26,670.00}. . 2,819.00 29, 489.00 
George K. Sanford fund 3 io. sec ces- cess ene men consee acca seneuaes 1, 100. 00 142. 00 1, 242. 00 
Chamberlain fand2£: 1.0115. 435.) Dee BA, Be Brea be bie par CCRT 10, 000. 00 10, 000. 00 
Bruce, Hughes finds--0 4. Ag ogeescee Sh er then eth. . ot peel ol. se dep ede. 7,327. 93 7,327.93 


Totale leegc (BE sae 2uS sae Ne CME os 1,000, 000/00 | 74,794.38 | 1,074, 794.38 


—— = 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 5 


The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co. was placed in the hands of re- 
ceivers on July 1, 1918. 

For the $5,000 in 5 per cent gold notes which failed of redemp- 
tion on the above date, $1,500 was subsequently paid to the Insti- 
tution in cash and the balance of $3,500 is held by the receivers 
pending final adjustment. 

A single piece of real estate bequeathed to the Institution by the 
late Robert Stanton Avery, and located in the District of Columbia, 
326 A Street SE., was sold and the sum of $3,046.50 was realized 
therefrom. Several lots of unimproved land located near Lowell, 
Mass., and forming a part of the bequest known as the Lucy T.. 
and George W. Poore fund, were also sold and the sum of $520.50 
was realized, making a total of $3,567 derived from the sale of real 
estate during the year. 

Income not required for current expenditures continues to be 
placed with local banks on time deposit; the interest so earned dur- 
ing the year amounted to $1,048.10. 

The income of the institution during the year, amounting to $144,- 
100.58, was derived as follows: Interest on permanent investments 
and other sources, $64,466.94; repayments, rentals, publications, etc., 
$34,723.33; contributions from various sources for specific purposes, 
$26,348.26; bills receivable, $15,000; proceeds from sale of real estate, 
$3,567. 

Adding the cash balance of $1,289.90 on July 1, 1918, the total 
resources for the year amounted to $145,390.43. 

Mr. B. H. Swales, honorary custodian, section of birds’ eggs, has 
contributed $300 to the Institution for the purchase of specimens. 

The disbursements which are described in the annual report of 
the executive committee amounted to $143,267.65, leaving a balance, 
on deposit with the Treasurer of the United States, in cash, and in 
bank, of $2,122.78. 

The Institution was charged by Congress with the disbursement 
of the following appropriations for the year ending June 30, 1919: 


ARINC STEVE CUCINA UNO ETAT Sees la ahs at ante PNM Ds EN $35, 000 
ER LLC ATL AAT LU ee ey Mes Rte ener Nana Perea £0 SYN VELL AANO eee Meet EA 2 Su mee eee 42, 000 
International catalogue of scientific literature_________-_______-_____ 7, 500 
Astrophysical -obNervatony =e oe Se Be per Mo TS ee 13, 000 
UNG TOT aU AIMS Wyn aa a8 a Se ea eee Ee Fi 
HUTMISure end, fixchyre ss ts eo eee Be Tee ee 15, 000 
TMS a GOES oY ONSET WIPES OY ia keg Nh Cae Sh AN a Ne ea pcp Seem i ce 55, 000 
Preservation for+collections “2 2avtos {Deo aU Asi nue bh 300, 000 
Biilding, épains 60 25 Be OE pee eR ls eh Pot ul s. 10, 000 
1 E00) Scie arse aR RR Ghetey eee ae a Ame SIE eRe OO) Some ROAR a Od santa et 4) 2, 000 
i SCO S| if 3 le es RY ee ETS 3 SUE NOS NTO RNY Toad DS Ma ae 500 
Bass he SAUL Ge Ug 7 22 a a i 3 ee 115, 000 


Increase of compensation (indefinite)_.-.___.___. = 


12573°—21—_—_2 


6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


In addition to the above, there was included under the general 
appropriation for printing and binding an allotment of $76,200, to 
cover the cost of printing and binding the Smithsonian annual re- 
port and reports and miscellaneous printing for the Government 
branches of the Institution. 


RESEARCHES AND EXPLORATIONS. 


The institution every year sends out or cooperates in expeditions 
to various parts of the world for the purpose of gathering all the 
information possible on the inhabitants, the fauna and flora, and 
other features of little-known regions, and thus carries out one of its 
primary objects—‘ the increase of knowledge.” While the war con- 
ditions prevailing during the first half of the year blocked certain 
projects, several expeditions of importance to science were under- 
taken, and a few of these are briefly summarized here. The annual 
Exploration Pamphlet issued by the institution and the reports of 
the various branches describe these and other researches more in 
detail. 


GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES. 


The geological explorations which have been conducted in the 
Canadian Rockies by your secretary for a number of years were con- 
tinued during the summer season of 1918, chiefly for the purpose of 
determining the geological structure of the upper Bow Valley north 
of Lake Louise, Alberta, and also at the headwaters of the Cascade 
River, at Sawback Lake. Another aim of the investigation was to 
locate any possible occurrences of unusual beds of fossils in the 
regions visited. 

Leaving the Canadian Pacific Railway at Lake Louise Station, the 
Bow Valley extends to the northwest parallel to the Continental 
Divide, which forms its southwestern side. Bow Lake at the head 
of the valley is a beautiful sheet of water hemmed in by bald moun- 
tain slopes and cliffs on the west and north and by the mass of Mount 
Molar on the east. From the west numerous glaciers drain into the 
lake. The first one encountered is Crowfoot, which flows from the 
great Wauputek snow field along the Continental Divide. 

Bow Pass, 4 miles north of the head of Bow Lake, has been eroded 
by glacial action into a broad, park-like area, so that the passage 
over into the valley of the Mistaya River of the Saskatchewan River 
drainage is scarcely realized until steep slopes indicate the approach 
toward Lake Peyto. This beautiful lake, with a glacier at its head, 
drains into the Mistaya River. The bold escarpment on the north 
side of the lake is continued to the north down the Mistaya River to 
the Saskatchewan. Several sections were examined along this front, 


REPORT OF THE SHCRETARY. y 


which were found to be similar to the section at the head of Bow 
Lake. 

The broad canyon valleys that unite the headwaters of the Sas- 
katchewan River are all carved by erosion out of the same type of 
Cambrian rocks as those exposed in the vicinity of Bow Lake, and 
also in the Bow Valley south of Lake Louise Station. 

At the close of the season a fine pair of mountain sheep, a black 
bear, one mule deer, a mountain goat, and a wolverine were collected, 
the skins and skulls being shipped to the National Museum. 


GEOLOGICAL WORK IN THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES. 


During the field season of 1918 the members of the geological staff 
were chiefly occupied in collecting material for the museum exhibi- 
tion series, most of the work being done in Virginia, Maryland, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. Sufficient material illustrat- 
ing the weathering and decay of rocks was obtained by Dr. J. C. 
Martin, assistant curator of geology, United States National 
Museum, to make up 100 sets for distribution to those agricultural 
and other colleges which give instruction in rock weathering and 
soil formation. Dr. Martin also visited several localities in Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, and New York for the purpose of filling cer- 
tain gaps in the ore and rock collections. 

In continuance of the search begun in recent years for large ex- 
hibition museum specimens to illustrate the various phases of struc- 
tural geology and stratigraphic paleontology, Drs. Bassler and 
Resser, of the division of paleontology, report as follows: 


Field work was begun with an investigation of the Cretaceous rocks of west- 
ern New Jersey, where the prime object was to secure suitable exhibits of such 
economically important rocks of organic origin as glauconite, or greensand, 
and calcareous marl. The greensand area in the vicinity of Vincentown, N. J., 
afforded the best results in fossil and rock specimens for both study and exhibi- 
tion, The very incoherent greensand could not be obtained in masses of a size 
suitable for exhibition, but by use of shellac a large piece was hardened suf- 
ficiently to be shipped to Washington without breakage. In the marl pits 
unusually well-preserved fossils were found scattered through an unconsoli- 
dated sand formation. Here specimens abound literally by the millions, and 
large numbers were collected by passing quantities of the sand through a fine- 
meshed sieve, the residue in this process usually consisting of nothing but well- 
preserved fossils. 

They then proceeded to the Lancaster Valley of Pennsylvania, where they 
were fortunate enough to secure intact a large mass of finely banded, crinkled 
limestone. This illustrates, on a small scale, the folding to which the earth’s 
erust has been subjected, and forms a much-needed addition to the exhibits. 

On the east front of the Allegheny Mountains Dr. Bassler obtained exhibition 
specimens illustrating faulting and its accompanying phenomena. In western 
Maryland a fault passes through a Silurian conglomerate composed of small, 
rounded pebbles of pure white quartz, forming an interesting educational ob- 
ject, and along the fault zone the conglomerate has been broken into angular 


8 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


fragments and recemented together into a hard rock. In one case this re- 
cementation had been caused by silica and in another by iron ore. Large ex- 
amples of both kinds of this fault breccia were collected. Photographs of these 
specimens in situ were secured so that explanatory exhibition labels can be 
illustrated. 


THE COLLINS-GARNER FRENCH CONGO EXPEDITION. 


In December, 1916, an expedition known as the “ Collins-Garner 
Expedition in the interests of the Smithsonian Institution” sailed 
from New York for Bordeaux and from there to Africa, with the 
object of procuring a general collection of vertebrates and especially 
the great apes. The expedition encountered many difficulties and 
delays owing to the war, but by the summer of 1918 they had estab- 
lished permanent headquarters near Fernan Vaz, French Congo. 
A letter from Mr. R. L. Garner, who has the general management 
of the expedition, states in part: 


Our domicile is located on the edge of a vast plain, traversed here and there 
by belts and spurs of forest. In those plots of bush live great numbers of 
chimpanzees, and for the first time in my long experience among them I have 
seen whole families of them out on the open plain. Frequently they cross the 
plain from one belt of bush to another, in some places a mile or so in width, 
and not a tree or bush in that distance to shelter them from attack. They 
often come within 200 to 300 yards of my house and sometimes manifest deep 
interest in trying to find out what this new thing is set up in their midst. I 
have seen as many as four or five different groups of them in the same day, 
and one of these contained 11 members. 

Mr. Aschemeier has collected well on to 2,000 specimens, and nearly all of 
them he has killed with his own gun. Some of these specimens are exceed- 
ingly rare and valuable. When you recall the fact that he came as taxi- 
dermist of the expedition and not as chasseur, he was not expected to provide 
the specimens that he was to preserve. 

We have forwarded six consignments of specimens to the Museum and have 
a seventh well on the way; but we find great difficulty in getting the steamers 
to take them from Port Gentil (Cap Lopez), because they are all under the 
direction of the French military authorities. Two of our last shipments were 
still at Port Gentil last month, where one of them has been lying since last 
January and all steamers declined to take it. Once both shipments were 
taken aboard the steamer and bill of lading signed when the captain changed 
his mind and sent the whole lot back on shore, with the accumulated charges 
of 40 francs for embarkation and debarkation. 

We have sent 12 or 13 specimens of buffalo, several specimens and species of 
antelope, and two or three fine specimens of the “red river hog,” beside a 
large collection of monkeys, representing six or seven species of both sexes and 
various ages. I think in all we have sent over 1,500 up to this time. Of 
course, this includes birds, etc., not insects, and we have on hand a goodly 
number. 


War conditions seriously interfered with the shipment of the 
material collected, but later on a large number of interesting ses 
mens were ee by the Museum. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9 
THE SMITHSONIAN AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 


Shortly before the close of the fiscal year a collecting expedition 
to Africa was organized, to be known as the Smithsonian African 
Expedition, under the direction of Edmund Heller, in conjunction 
with the Universal Film Manufacturing Co. The expedition sailed 
from this country a few days after the close of the year for Cape 
Town, Africa, from which city arrangements were to be made for 
the plunge into the interior of the continent. The expedition is to 
collect animals, plants, and other material for uses of comparison 
in working up the collections made in Africa by Col. Theodore 
Roosevelt, Paul Rainey, and others, already in the National Museum. 
Representatives of the Universal Film Manufacturing Co. accom- 
panied the expedition to make extensive motion pictures of life in 
the mysterious interior. The expedition will explore the jungles, 
deserts, lakes, and rivers and will be out at least a year. 

Exploration is contemplated in various parts of the Cape region, 
the great Victoria Falls of the Zambesi River, and western Rho- 
desia. From there the expedition will cross to the sources of the 
Congo in Belgian Congo, then turn east toward Lake Tanganjika, 
following, to some extent, the trails of Livingston and Stanley in 
this region. From the town of Ujiji, on the eastern shore of the 
lake, the temporary headquarters of the expedition, excursions will 
be made into the former German East Africa and the Uganda Pro- 
tectorate, especially the Ryvenzori Mountain region. 

The primary purpose of the expedition is to secure additional 
specimens of plants and animals, chiefly from the interior and from 
South Africa, in which the Museum is rather deficient. These will 
prove a welcome supplement to the magnificent collections brought 
home by Col. Theodore Roosevelt and others and on which mono- 
eraphic reports are desired, but which can not be worked up intelli- 
gently and satisfactorily until more material is obtained. The 
experienced collectors, Mr. H. C. Raven, representing the institu- 
tion, and Dr. H. L. Shantz, of the Department of Agriculture, will 
undoubtedly send back to this country much material of value con- 
cerning the little-known parts of the “ Dark Continent” which have 
puzzled scientists and laymen for a long time. 


BOTANICAL EXPLORATIONS IN ECUADOR. 


As a part of a cooperative plan for an investigation of the flora 
of northern South America, organized by the United States National 
Museum, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Gray Herbarium, 
Dr. J. N. Rose, associate curator in the division of plants of the 
Museum, spent three months making botanical collections in Ecuador. 
A large quantity of desired material, including 6,000 botanical speci- 


10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


mens, 100 jars of fruit seeds and plant products preserved in 
formalin, a number of wood specimens, and samples of bark, was 
collected. It is expected that this and other proposed botanical 
researches in this region will be of much value to the agricultural 
and horticultural interests in this country. 

In the course of Dr. Rose’s work in Ecuador two sections were 
made of the coast across the western range of the Andes to the 
interior Andean Valley; one in the south from Santa Rosa to Loja, 
and the other near the center of the country from Guayaquil to 
Ricbamba. A longitudinal section was made down the Andean 
Valley from San Antonio to Loja. This last section was over the 
route followed by Alexander von Humboldt at the beginning of 
the eighteenth century. Many of the plants collected by him on this 
memorable journey were re-collected. 


CINCHONA BOTANICAL STATION. 


With the consent of the governor of Jamaica the three-years’ lease 
of the Cinchona Botanical Station, held by the institution, was can- 
celed during the period of the war, as it was found impracticable to 
undertake any botanical research there during the unsettled condi- 
tions prevailing. The lease was terminated, however, with the hope 
that it could be taken up again with the return of normal conditions, 
and a few days after the close of the fiscal year a letter was received 
from Prof, Duncan S. Johnson, chairman of the committee of sub- 
seribers to the maintenance of the station, at that time in Jamaica, 
stating that he had begun negotiations with the Government to 
renew the lease, beginning January, 1920. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IN PERU AND BOLIVIA. 


Mr. Philip A. Means, honorary collaborator in American arche- 
ology, United States National Museum, spent some months during 
the year in archeological work in Peru and Bolivia. The region 
around Lima, according to Mr. Means, is undoubtedly one of the 
richest in South America from the archeological standpoint. After 
visiting a number of the ancient ruins in this section, considerable 
time was spent in examining the archeological] collections of several 
South American scientists. In an account of his work, Mr. Means 
says: 

Two of the least known places visited were Maranga and Pando. They are 
very close together, and are about 6 miles northwest of Lima. In its prime, 
Maranga had four fine terraces, with a spacious terreplein at the top. At the 
bottom the pyramid is about 450 feet square and the summit terreplein is about 
250 feet by 350. The material of construction is adobe. This pyramid is prob- 
ably of Inca construction; it is much like the Inca-built Temple of the Sun at 
Pachacamac and has yielded many Inea artifacts. 

Lying somewhat north and northwest of Maranga are the ruins of Pando. 
These cover an immense amount of ground, and consist of several pyramids 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 11 


even larger than Maranga, but not so well preserved. The old city at this place 
was inclosed in a massive wall, with easily defended gateways. These latter 
were narrow, and, at either side, sunk in the thickness of the wall, there was a 
raised platform or niche where possibly a guard could stand and effectually 
oppose ingress. 

At the western side of Pando there are the remains of a fine, though small, 
palace or temple. Although it is only about 85 feet square, this little building 
is remarkable on account of the attractive arabesque patterns made in the stucco 
coating of the walls. The western end of the main room was provided with a 
platform, raised some 3 feet above the rest of the floor. Behind this there was 
a passage which led to other apartments. It is not now possible to know 
exactly what sort of roof there was, for the wind has eroded the tops of the 
walls and signs of roof beams or joists are no longer visible. 


THH PROPOSED ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL, 


On January 29, 1919, a bill was introduced in the House of Repre- 
sentatives by Congressman F.. C. Hicks, providing for the erection of 
a museum of history and of the arts as a memorial to Theodore 
Roosevelt. It was intended that the proposed museum would contain 
the extensive collections already in the National Museum of relics 
and mementoes of illustrious patriots of our country and of the 
events conspicuous in its history. The bill provides that the building 
should be planned and erected under the direction of the Regents of 
the Smithsonian Institution, and, when completed, would be admin- 
istered by them. The site selected is the north side of the Mall, on a 
line with the present beautiful structure of the Natural History 
Building of the National Museum. 

The memorial museum would contain also collections relating to 
arts and industries, including the great divisions of mechanical and 
mineral technology, such as objects and models illustrating the devel- 
opment of the electric telegraph and telephone; the phonograph; 
transportation by land, water, and air; musical instruments, from 
primitive to present forms; printing, illustrating, and bookmaking; 
photography, from the earliest invention to the modern moving-pic- 
ture apparatus; ores and minerals, their natural occurrence, processes 
of extraction and manufacture, from the native state to the finished 
product; textiles; drugs; foods; and animal and vegetable products. 

Provision would also be made for the present National Gallery of 
Art, in the development of which President Roosevelt took an active 
and timely interest. The collections of the National Gallery now 
approximate $1,000,000 in value, and would grow more rapidly if 
adequate installation were insured. 

In my letter to Congressman Hicks regarding the memorial, I 
stated, in part, as follows: 

The proposed museum would not be a dead memorial, but a virile living 


tribute to Roosevelt that for ages would serve to educate and stimulate all 
classes of Americans. Its educational value would be great to the child, the 


12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


youth, and mature men and women. It would stimulate the historian, artist, 
designer, manufacturer, and artisan, and bring to the American people in 
the most realistic manner the extent and character of their historical and in- 
dustrial development, and place side by side with the American many of the 
developments in art and science of other lands. I can not conceive of a more 
powerful influence for good that could take the form of a memorial to 
Roosevelt. 

We have the great monument to Washington, the great mausoleum to Lincoln, 
and if on the same great parkway between the Capitol and the Potomac this 
tribute to Roosevelt could be erected it would be a tribute worthy of what he 
himself stood for in the life and thought of our country. 

The bill providing for this memorial to Theodore Roosevelt was 
not brought up before the Congress for action during the session, 
at which it was introduced, but it was reintroduced on May 21, 1919, 
during the first session of the Sixty-sixth Congress, and at the close 
of the fiscal year was still in committee. | 


RESEARCH CORPORATION. 


The Research Corporation, mentioned in several previous reports, 
is the outgrowth of the gift to the Smithsonian Institution by Dr. 
F. G. Cottrell of his patents covering the electrical precipitation of 
suspended particles. 

The process is now in successful operation in a number of smelting 
and refining plants in which the precipitation of fumes is an impor- 
tant item. From the income of these applications there was estab- 
lished a fellowship, amounting to $2,500 each year, for research 
along technical lines. 


POPULAR SCIENTIFIC LECTURES. 


In furthering one of the purposes of the Institution, “the diffu- 
sion of knowledge,” a series of popular scientific lectures, illustrated 
by lantern slides, was instituted during the year, and given in the 
auditorium of the National History Building of the Museum. These 
lectures were open to the public and were all well attended, showing 
the interest of the people of Washington in scientific matters. Hight 
lectures were given in the series, on alternate Saturday afternoons, 
as follows: 

. Photographing in the Canadian Rockies, by Charles D. Walcott. 

. Sun Rays in Many Lands, by C. G. Abbot. 

. The Indian as a Stone Mason, by J. Walter Fewkes. 

. Meteorites and Shooting Stars, by George P. Merrill. 

. The Story of Our Local Aborigines, Historic and Prehistoric, With Demon- 
strations of Their Instrument Making, by William H. Holmes. 

6. Harmful and Beneficial Insects, and How the National Museum Helps in 
Their Study, by L. O. Howard. 

7. The Story of Silk, by Frederick L. Lewton. 

8. Why the Wild Flowers Are So Wild, by Frederick V. Coville. 


It is intended to continue these lectures during’ the coming year. 


oR ON eH 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. { 13 
CONGRESS OF AMERICANISTS. 


The twentieth international congress of Americanists which was 
to have been held at Rio de Janeiro in June, 1919, was postponed 
until the following year, when more favorable conditions may be 
expected. 


PUBLICATIONS. 


The institution and its branches issued during the year 98 volumes 
and separate pamphlets. The total distribution was 161,288 copies 
which includes 404 volumes and separate memoirs of Smithsonian 
Contributions to Knowledge, 15,603 volumes and separate pamphlets 
of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 13,885 volumes and sepa- 
rates of the Smithsonian Annual Reports, 118,332 volumes and sepa- 
rates of the National Museum publications, 11,483 publications of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology (all series), 1,444 special publica- 
tions, 10 volumes of the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory, 69 
reports of the Harriman Alaska Expedition, and 58 reports of the 
American Historical Association. 

An unusually large number of rabhietiont were in press at the 
close of the year, owing to the overcrowded condition of the Govern- 
ment Printing Office during the war. 

Allotments for printing—The allotments for the year for the 
printing of the Smithsonian report and the various publications of 
the branches of the Institution were practically used up and the 
allotments for the year ending June 30, 1920, are as follows: 


For the Smithsonian Institution: For printing and binding the annual 
reports of the Board of Regents, with general appendices, the editions 
of which shall not exceed 10,000 copies_______._-______ $10, 000 
For the annual reports of the National Museum, with general ap- 
pendices, and for printing labels and blanks and for the bulletins and 
proceedings of the National Museum, the editions of which shall not 
exceed 4,000 copies, and binding in half morocco or material not more 
expensive, scientific books and pamphlets presented to or acquired 


by thenNational Museum eibrary 2s. 2 0 i Re eee een 37, 500 
For the annual reports and bulletins of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology and for miscellaneous printing and binding for the bureau___ 21, 000 
For miscellaneous printing and binding: 
Internationals exchiam meg erae ca) law iy eee es ee aed a a 200 
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature_________________ 100 
SN NT OTN AO OL 1 CeO MN aT Ke ero ee ec 200 
ASTTODHY SICAL OSCE VALOR: = = tess Bi td TD ME RO Tyee aN SER AE 200 
For the annual report of the American Historical Association_________ 7, 000 


Committee on printing and publication—All manuscripts offered 
for publication by the Institution or its branches are considered by 
the Smithsonian advisory committee on printing and publication. 


14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


Thirteen meetings were held during the year and 79 manuscripts 
were acted upon. The membership of the committee is as follows: 
Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, head curator of biology, National Museum, 
chairman; Mr. N. Hollister, superintendent of the National Zoologi- 
cal Park; Dr. George P. Merrill, head curator of geology, National 
Museum; Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, chief of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology; and Mr. A. Howard Clark, editor of the Institution and 
secretary of the committee until his death in December, 1918, when 
Mr. Webster P. True succeeded him as editor and secretary of the 
committee. 
LIBRARY. 


The library of the Smithsonian Institution is maintained for the 
purpose of assembling a collection of periodicals and. publications of 
a scientific nature, as well as the journals and other publications of 
scientific institutions of the world, the whole forming a library of 
reference and research. In addition to the main bulk of titles housed 
in the Library of Congress, and known as the Smithsonian Deposit, 
there are 35 sectional technical libraries and 4 branch libraries—the 
National Museum library, the Bureau of American Ethnology 
library, the Astrophysical Observatory library, and the National 
Zoological Park library. 

The number of accessions during the year which were added to the 
previous collection of over half a million titles numbered 7,502. Of 
these 2,077 were for the Smithsonian Deposit, 639 for the Smith- 
sonian office, Astrophysical Observatory, and National Zoological 
Park, and 4,786 for the National Museum. 

Seventy-eight titles have been added during the year to the insti- 
tution’s collection of aeronautical publications, in which continued 
interest has been shown by aeronautical research workers in the 
Army, Navy, and scientific institutions. Author cards for 1,722 
titles of books in the De Peyster Collection have been made, and the 
869 volumes on French history have been made accessible. 

In the Museum library the most important acquisition was a set 
of catalogues of the J. Pierpont Morgan art collection, presented by 
J. Pierpont Morgan, jr. The technological library added 346 vol- 
umes, and the books in the sectional library, division of plants, 
have been revised and all available works on botanical subjects 
brought together and rendered accessible. The collection in the art 
room, statuary, as well as books, has been carefully gone over and put 
in thorough order. 


NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
The National Museum suffered the loss at the beginning of 


the year of the assistant secretary in charge, Mr. Richard Rathbun, 
who died July 16, 1918. His duties devolved upon Mr. W. de C. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15 


Ravenel, the administrative assistant, whose title was changed to 
Pa ae assistant to the eeties and on November 1 was 
also designated director of arts and industries. 

The scope of the National Museum embraces many subjects, which 
may be classed under the following headings: 

1. Natural history. 

2. Applied science and art (Arts and Indusiries). 

3. The fine arts (the National Gallery of Art). 

4, American history. 

These various departments are combined under one administration, 
which insures greater economy and efficiency in management. 

During the war the Museum furnished the Bureau of War Risk 
Insurance with 138,600 square feet of space for its offices. Members 
of the Museum staff in all departments continued to render service to 
the various governmental agencies until the signing of the armistice, 
and their work was successful in bringing the Museum into closer 
relationship with the executive departments. 

The total number of accessions received during the year was 526,- 
845, classified and assigned as follows: Department of Anthropology, 
12,333; Zoology, 442,383; Botany, 40,357; Geology and Mineralogy, 
4,750; Paleontology, 26,050; Textiles, etc., 884; Mineral Technology, 
62; and National Gallery of Art, 26. Three thousand and ninety-six 
pe were loaned for ehifatiens mainly for the divisigns of 
history and American archeology ad the Gallery of Art. Pur- 
chases were made from the Frances Lea Chamberlain fund and the 
Henry Ward Ranger fund. 

During the year the Museum began the collection of a most val- 
uable and interesting series of war relics. One of the most instruc- 
tive features of this collection is an exhibit showing the development 
of the airplane, from the original Langley models to the first Gov- 
ernment-owned aeroplane of the world, purchased by the United 
States from the Wright Brothers in 1909. Through the director of 
military aeronautics, Bureau of Aircraft Pgoduction, two types of 
planes used by the French at the front in 1917 were received, and a 
Curtiss training plane of the model used at flying fields all over the 
United States, as well as the first battle plane constructed in this 
country for the United States Government—the DH—4—made by the 
Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. in 1917. This machine was flown over 
100,000 miles. 

The Department of Anthropology received exceptionally large 
additions relating to the war with Germany. They include the 
Combined Order of Battle Map, corrected to November 11, 1918, 
with its accessories, as used by Gen. Pershing and his staff at 
Chaumont, France, throughout the progress of the American military 


16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


movements; a collection of German military paraphernalia captured 
by American troops during various engagements; collections of the 
equipment of the various branches of the American Army; and an 
almost complete series of uniforms, insignia, decorations, and medals 
of the Army and Navy, as well as a collection of relics of Lieut. Ben- 
jamin Stuart Walcott, United States Army, who entered the French 
air service as a member of the Lafayette Flying Corps, and who was 
killed in aerial combat on December 12, 1917. 

Another interesting addition consists of a large series of costumes 
and accessories worn by the late Richard Mansfield in his extensive 
repertoire of historic characters, presented by Mrs. Mansfield. 

The chief addition in the Department of Biology was a collection 
of Antillean land mollusks, aggregating 400,000 specimens, donated 
by Mr. John B. Henderson, a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. 
The final installment of Dr. Abbott’s Celebes collections was re- 
ceived likewise. The collections in the National Herbarium were 
enriched by a donation of 12,000 plants from Mexico, 9,600 from the 
Philippines, and many from the South American countries. 

The Division of Textiles received for exhibition purposes from 
the office of the Surgeon General of the United States Army a col- 
lection consisting of apparatus, hospital appliances, and field equip- 
ment used by the Medical, Dental, and Sanitary Corps in the war. 
This included examples of all kinds of equipment of a thousand-bed 
hespital overseas. ‘The food exhibits were continued and an arrange- 
ment was made with the States Relations Service of the Department 
of Agriculture, whereby regular demonstrations of the value, use, 
preparation, and conservation of foods were given. Over 2,100 per- 
sons attended the lectures and various demonstrations. 

Work on the Freer Building progressed satisfactorily, and it is ex- 
pected that the structure will be completed early in 1920. The Na- 
tional Gallery of Art acquired from Mr. Ralph Cross Johnson a rare 
gift of 24 paintings, which comprises selections from the work of 
19 of Europe’s foremos§ masters. 

The most pressing neéds of the Museum are a separate building 
for the National Gallery of Art, which has long since outgrown its 
present temporary quarters, and also one for American history. It 
is likewise imperative to increase the scientific and technical staff 
in order that the Institution may keep pace with the rapid develop- 
ment of the country. 

The total distribution of Museum publications during the year 
aggregated 118,332 copies. Over 4,000 volumes, pamphlets, and 
unbound papers were added to the library, which now contains 
54,685 volumes and 87,109 pamphlets and unbound papers. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


The usual activities of the Bureau of American Ethnology, defined 
by law as “ ethnological researches among the American Indians, in- 
cluding the excavation and preservation of archeologic remains,” 
have been carried on during the year under the direction of Dr. J. 
Walter Fewkes, chief. Intensive studies were made of the dying lan- 
guages of the numerous Indian tribes in order to discover the rela- 
tionship of the various stocks of the aborigines and to gain a clearer 
insight into the origin, history, and migration of man on this con- 
tinent. The continued study of the material culture of the Indians 
also has its practical value, while another instructive line of work 
relates to the history of the Indians both before and after the advent 
of Europeans. 

Field researches include, in addition to those mentioned above, 
the excavation and preservation of archeological remains. A few of 
these researches are mentioned very briefly here in order to show the 
nature of the work. A somewhat more detailed account of these and 
other undertakings of the bureau during the year will be found in an 
appendix hereto. Valuable work was done by Dr. Fewkes in the 
McElmo and tributary canyons in Colorado and in Utah as far west 
as Montezuma Canyon, on the aboriginal castles and towers of that 
region, and through his efforts the Aztec Spring Ruin was presented 
by the owner, Mr. Henry van Kleeck, of Denver, to the National 
Park Service, and accepted by the Secretary of the Interior. 

Dr. J. R. Swanton, ethnologist, devoted much of his time to the 
collection of material from published sources for a study of the 
economic background of the life of the American Indians north of 
Mexico. He has also continued his study of the languages of the 
Indians of the lower Mississippi Valley and of the social systems of 
the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. 

Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnologist, prepared for the press the 
Onondaga version of the Myth of the Beginnings, the Genesis Myth 
of the Iroquoian peoples, and continued his previous study of the 
league. 

Mr. Francis LaFlesche, ethnologist, is now completing for publica- 
tion his notes on the rite of the chiefs, the tribal rite of the Osage 
people. In this ritual is embodied the story of the four stages of the 
development of the tribal government, including both the military 
and the civil forms, beginning with the chaotic state of the tribal 
existence. 

Mr. J. P. Harrington, ethnologist, has obtained. important corrob- 
orative evidence of the validity of his discovery that there is a close 
genetic relationship between Tanoan pueblo dialects of New Mexico 


18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


and the Kiowa. The bearings of this discovery on theories of the 
origin of modern Pueblos is very significant. 

Special research work was done among the Salish Tribes, the Paw- 
nee, and Chippewa. Dr. Walter Hough, curator of ethnology, 
United States National Museum, undertook archeological work in the 
White Mountain Apache Reserve, Arizona, and Mr. Neil M. Judd, 
curator of American archeology, United States National Museum, suc- 
cessfully investigated five prehistoric ruins in the Cottonwood Can- 
yon caves. Dr. AleS Hrdlitka, curator of physical anthropology, 
United States National Museum, was detailed to make an examina- 
tion of the remains of southwestern Florida, especially of the shell 
heaps along the coast south of Key Marco. Mr. Gerard Fowke has 
made careful detailed study of the numerous caves in the Ozark 
region of central Missouri, and also transmitted a valuable collection 
of relics to the Museum. 

The number of publications distributed was 11,483, an increase of 
4,189 over the number sent out last year. The library accessioned 
380 new books and 210 pamphlets. 


INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 


The total number of packages handled by the International Ex- 
change Service during the year was 270,860, an increase over the 
number for the previous year of 3,914.. Although it has not yet been 
possible to put the service on a prewar basis as far as the shipment of 
consignments abroad is concerned, shipments in boxes are being made 
as frequently as present conditions will permit to all countries except 
Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Roumania, 
Russia, Serbia, and Turkey. 

The exchange service has continued its policy of international 
helpfulness in procuring publications desired by governmental and 
scientific establishments both abroad and at home. As an instance of 
this service, sets as nearly complete as possible of posters relating to 
the war were assembled and transmitted to the British Museum at 
their request, a similar service having been rendered to the French 
Government the previous year. Owing to the excessive charges on 
ocean freight, many packages were sent by mail. 

Late in the fiscal year shipments to Belgium and the northern 
neutrals were resumed. ‘The chief of the Belgian Service of Inter- 
national Exchanges said, in part, in a letter to the office here: 

I should fail most lamentably in my duty, Mr. Secretary, if I did not add to 
this reply warm thanks in the name of the Belgian Government, in the name of 
our scientific establishments and institutions, and in my own name, for the ex- 
treme kindness you have shown us in reserving for us until the present time all 
the numerous “series” and “collections” (one and all of inestimable value) 
which the war has prevented you from transmitting to us at the proper time. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 
THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 


The National Zoological Park continues in popularity as a means 
of natural history education and as a place of recreation and amuse- 
ment for the people of Washington. 

The total number of animals in the park at the close of the fiscal 
year was 1,336, including 528 mammals, 71 reptiles, and 737 birds. 
Among the more important additions were two young Sumatran 
elephants, purchased at a cost of $5,000, for the children of Wash- 
ington by a number of their friends and donated to the institution. 
At the time of their arrival they were about 24 years old and were the 
first of their kind to be exhibited in Washington. Other important 
additions were a fine capybara, from the Hon. Henry D. Baker, 
Trinidad, British West Indies; a great white heron of southern 
Florida, from Dr. Paul Bartsch; and a pair of Florida bears from 
Mrs. A. V. N. Stroop. 

Visitors to the park during the year numbered 1,964,715—a daily 
average of 5,383. Ninety-eight schools and classes visited the col- 
lection for instruction purposes. 

Among the recent improvements are exterior cages for leopards, 
jaguars, and hyenas, and a new chimney for the central heating 
plant. A part of the creek-side drive was rebuilt, some animal 
houses were painted, and small improvements in the animal houses 
and yards were likewise effected. 

The need of a new house for the exhibition of birds continues to 
become more urgent from year to year. An increased appropriation 
for the expenses of the park is also badly needed, as well as one 
sufficient for the purchase and transportation of animals, so that the 
park may take advantage from time to time of opportunities to 
obtain rare and conspicuous animals not before exhibited. The 
purchase of a frontage of over 600 feet on Connecticut Avenue, 
urged for several years by the superintendent, but which has not 
yet been considered favorably by Congress, would satisfy all the 
needs of the park as regards necessary expansion and better service 
to the public on the west side; and it becomes more and more im- 
portant to secure this land, as the probability of losing the oppor- 
tunity increases every year. It is also desirable to purchase a small 
strip of privately owned land between the park and the important 
highway of Adams Mill Road, because of improvements being made 
at that point by the District government. The incorporation of 
this land within the park is of very great interest to the public. — 

The slight increase in the annual appropriation granted by Con- 
gress scarcely more than covered the increased cost of maintenance 
of the park, even by practicing the strictest economy. Lack of 
funds for grading banks and filling ravines has prevented the com- 


20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


pletion of work begun three years ago for the purpose of obtaining 
new level spaces for yards and inclosures. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 


Several important investigations relating to the war, begun last 
year, were continued by the staff of the Astrophysical Observatory 
under the general direction of Dr. C. G. Abbot, in addition to the 
regular work of the observatory. These researches are mentioned 
elsewhere in this report under the heading “ General considerations.” 

At Washington work on solar radiation computations has gone 
on steadily, and progress has been made with the preparation of a 
new medium, potassium iodide, for the investigation of the rays 
beyond where rock salt is transmissible. A new instrument, based 
upon the principle of the perfect radiator, or “ absolutely black body,” 
was constructed for the purpose of measuring nocturnal radiation, 
such as the earth sends out to space. At the close of the year 
this instrument was reported as operating successfully on Mount 
Wilson. 

In view of the fact that the total eclipse of the sun of May 29, 
1919, would be visible at La Paz, Bolivia, which is not very far from 
the Smithsonian solar constant observing station at. Calama, Chile, 
a successful expedition was undertaken by Dr. Abbot, with the 
double purpose of observing the eclipse and visiting the Calama 
station. Good photographs of the phenomenon and also pyrano- 
metric observations by Mr. A. F. Moore of the brightness of the sky 
were obtained during the progress of the eclipse. A conference was 
held with officials of the Argentine Government, which is likely to 
prove of great value in the future, in that it concerned the employ- 
ment of solar-radiation measurements for weather forecasting by 
the Argentine meteorological service. At Calama, Chile, Dr. Abbot, 
in cooperation with the Smithsonian observers there, Messrs. Moore 
and Leonard Abbot, devised a new method of reducing solar radia- 
tion observations, so as to determine the solar constant of radiation 
with at least equal precision to that obtained by the older method, 
the advantages of the new method being (1) its independence of the 
variability of atmospheric transparency; (2) the time required is 
only one-fifth of the former period. 

On Mount Wilson Mr. Aldrich continued the observations of the 
solar constant of radiation, and in September, 1918, made an inter- 
esting observation in cooperation with the Army Balloon School at 
Arcadia, Calif., on the measurement of the reflection of sun and 
sky radiation from layers of fog, which led him to conclude that 
a great horizontal fog bank reflects to space 78 per cent of the radia- 
tion of the sun falling upon it. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. DA 


The preparation of Volume IV of the Annals of the Astrophysical 
Observatory has been in the hands of Dr. Abbot since February; it 
includes the results of measurements from the year 1913. Mr. Fowle 
has continued the work of revising the Smithsonian Physical 
Tables, in which he has received valuable aid from the various 
scientific departments of the Government and from individuals in 
colleges and industrial corporations. 


INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC . 
_ LITERATURE. 


The United States Regional Bureau of the Catalogue, supported 
by congressional appropriation under the direction of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, undertakes to list and index all scientific articles 
appearing in the United States each year. These titles are for- 
warded to the Central Bureau in London, where they are incorpor- 
ated with the lists from all other countries in a comprehensive cata- 
logue of the year’s scientific work of the world. The war and the 
chaotic conditions in Europe since the war, have greatly hampered 
the work of the catalogue and it has been recognized for several years 
that a general reorganization will be necessary when conditions be- 
come more settled. 

The Central Bureau has published during the year 8 volumes of 
the Thirteenth Annual Issue, completing that issue, and 12 of the 
17 volumes of the Fourteenth Issue have appeared. The United 
States Bureau has continued to gather and index the scientific titles 
in this country, and in some of the sciences, notably zoology, the titles 
have been classified far in advance of the published volumes. 

It has been recently announced by the Royal Society of London, 
the principal sponsor of the catalogue since its inception, that after 
the completion of the Feurteenth Annual Issue a new financial ar- 
rangement will be necessary in order to continue the work, and scien- 
tific establishments and academies throughout the world have been 
asked to offer suggestions as to the best method of accomplishing this 
end. 

NECROLOGY. 


I may here express for myself and on behalf of the staff of the 
Institution and the National Museum the deep sense of loss caused. by 
the death during the year of Mr. Richard Rathbun, assistant secre- 
tary in charge of the National Museum, and Mr. A. Howard Clark, 
editor of the Smithsonian Institution. These two men, through 
long connection with the Institution, contributed much to its de- 
velopment and their passing leaves a deep feeling of personal loss 
among their associates. 

12573°—21——_3 


22 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


RICHARD RATHBUN. 


Richard Rathbun, assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, was born in Buffalo, N. Y., January 25, 1852, and died July 16, 
1918. He received his education at Cornell University, specializing 
in geology and paleontology. Here he was associated with Charles 
Fred Hartt, professor of geology, who assigned to Mr. Rathbun the 
task of working up for publication a collection of fossils from Brazil, 
which resulted in the publication of Mr. Rathbun’s first paper on 
the “Devonian Brachiopoda of. Erere, of the Province of Para, 
Brazil.” During this work he had occasion to visit the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, where the environment proved 
so congenial that he remained here fortwo years. During thesummer 
months he served as a volunteer assistant under Spencer F. Baird in 
marine explorations on the New England coast. Through his as- 
sociation with Prof. Baird his connection with the Smithsonian 
Institution began. . 

In 1875 he was appointed geologist to the Geological Commission 
of Brazil, and for the following three years he studied the geological 
features of that country. On returning to the United States he was 
appointed a scientific assistant in the United States Fish Commission, 
in. which service he remained until 1896. 

During this period several papers from his pen appeared in “ The 
Fisheries and the Fish Industry of the United States.” During 
these years also he was involved in the fur seal investigation, The 
most important international commission to the Fur Seal Islands 
was the one sent out in 1896, and Mr. Rathbun was named chief 
advisor to Mr. Hamlin in immediate charge of the case. 

In 1896 Mr. Rathbun came to the Smithsonian Institution and at 
the beginning of 1897 took up the duties as assistant in charge of 
office and exchanges, later being named assistant secretary. The fol- 
lowing year, holding this same title, he was given charge of the Na- 
tional Museum, which position he held until his death. 

One of the most important events during his administration of 
the Museum was the appropriation for and the construction of the 
new Natural History Building, in which he took a deep interest, and 
for which he was in large part responsible. He also undertook the 
development of the National Gallery of Art, a feature of the Smith- 
sonian which is mentioned first in the act creating the Institution, but 
which had remained dormant for lack of adequate facilities. 

Mr. Rathbun was a member of many scientific societies, including 
several foreign connections. His bibliography contains nearly 100 
titles, including the numerous papers written during his connection 
with the Fish Commission, and his official reports as administrator 
of the National Museum. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. aes 
ALONZO HOWARD CLARK. 


Alonzo Howard Clark, editor of the Smithsonian Institution, was 
born in Boston April 13, 1850, and was educated at Wesleyan Uni- 
versity, receiving an honorary degree of M. A. in 1906. Mr. Clark’s 
first connection with the Government service was in 1879, when he 
was put in charge of the United States Fish Commission Station in 
Gloucester, Mass. In 1881 he was made curator of the division of 
history of the United States National Museum, and later editor of 
the Smithsonian Institution, which position he held until his death 
on December 31, 1918. Mr. Clark was also affiliated with a number 
of patriotic and historical societies, being secretary and registrar 
general of the Sons of the American Revolution, and an officer of the 
Society of Mayflower Descendants and of the Society of Colonial 
Wars. Matters of patriotic and historical interest were Mr. Clark’s 
chief delight, and it was through his efforts that were begun the 
present great historical collections in the Museum. He was especially 
fitted for his position as curator of this division through his wide 
experience in historical and genealogical work and his many con- 
nections with organizations of that nature. Mr. Clark also held a 
prominent place in the activities of the American Historical Asso- 
ciation, being secretary of this organization from 1889 to 1908, and 
curator from 1889 until the time of his death. 

Respectfully submitted. 

Cuartes D. Watoorr, Secretary. 


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APPENDIX 1. 


REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


Sir: It is with profound sorrow that I record the death at his 
home in this city on July 16, 1918, of Richard Rathbun, assistant 
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution since 1897, and, as such, in 
charge of the United States National Museum since 1898. 

Out of respect to his memory the flags on the buildings of the 
Institution were carried at half-mast until after the interment of 
his remains in Rock Creek Cemetery on July 18. Business was sus- 
pended in the offices and the public exhibition halls were closed on 
the day of his funeral. 

This is not the place to give an adequate review of the work of 
Mr. Rathbun as a man of science, or to recall his contributions to 
the upbuilding of the institution with which he was so long con- 
nected. I may be permitted, however, to express here my sense of 
bereavement in the passing of a man whose friendship and personal 
and official confidence I was permitted to enjoy. 

During Mr. Rathbun’s disability, and after his decease, the ad- 
ministration of the Museum devolved upon me as next in authority. 

On November 1, 1918, the position of assistant secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution in charge of the United States National 
Museum was discontinued, and I, as directed by you, assumed charge 
of the administrative affairs of the Museum, with the title of ad- 
ministrative assistant to the secretary. In addition to the general 
duties of the above assignment, I was: designated director of arts 
and industries. 

Introduction—The scope of the National Museum embraces many 
subjects, which may be classed under the following headings: 

1. Natural history, comprising zoology, botany, geology, mineral- 
ogy, paleontology, physical anthropology, ethnology, and archeology. 

2. Applied science and art (Arts and Industries). 

3. The fine arts (National Gallery of Art). 

4, American history. 

At the capitals of the principal countries abroad there are gener- 
ally several separate Government museums for these various classes, 
notably in London and Paris, resulting from the independent origin 
of the different collections. In London, for example, the subjects 
combined in the United States National Museum are distributed be- 

25 


26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


tween two sections of the British Museum (Bloomsbury and South 
Kensington), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, 
the Museum of Practical Geology, Bethnal Green Museum, the Wal- 
lace Collection, the several national galleries of art, and others. In 
Washington, on the contrary and very fortunately, the entire mu- 
seum scheme has, by law, been essentially combined under one ad- 
ministration, which not only msures greater economy in manage- 
ment, but permits of a more logical classification and arrangement, 
the elimination of duplication, and a consequent reduction in the 
relative amount of space required. 

The national collections of the United States are not yet to be com- 
pared as a whole with those of certain Kuropean countries, though in 
natural history they are probably not surpassed there. In respect to 
the fine arts, the Freer collection comprises the most important rep- 
resentation of oriental art in the world. However, in the fine arts 
generally and in the useful or industrial arts the National Museum 
has a great task before it, possible of accomplishment only when 
requisite facilities are supplied. 

Steps were taken during the year looking to the more definite 
organization of the department of arts and industries. Elaborate 
classifications have been proposed from time to time, but none of 
these have been strictly followed in the arrangement. of the collec- 
tions, due mainly to the limitation of space. Work is being chiefly 
centered at present on those subdivisions which are most prominent 
in relation to current industrial affairs, but there are other subdivi- 
sions with important collections which are not represented by experts 
on the staff on account of lack of funds for their employment. As at 
present constituted the Department of Arts and Industries may be 
considered to consist of the Division of Mineral Technology, the 
Division of Textiles, the Section of Wood Technology, the Section of 
Foods, the Division of Medicine, and the Division of Mechanical 
Technology. 

War activities—In the last report the action of the Board of 
Regents of the Institution at the request of the President of the 
United States in closing the natural history building to the public on 
July 16, 1918, was noted, enabling the Museum to furnish the Bureau 
of War Risk Insurance of the Treasury Department with 138,600 
square feet of space for office purposes on the ground and the two 
exhibition floors. This was done with the understanding that the 
Museum would be vacated upon the completion of the building then 
being erected for the bureau at the corner. of Vermont, Avenue and 
H Street, and that the Museum space would be turned back to the 
Museum authorities in the same condition in which it was received 
by the bureau. Late in March the bureau moved to its own. struc- 
ture, but its funds were then so depleted that it was unable to carry 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 


out the agreement as to renovating the building. It was therefore 
unfortunately necessary to reopen the natural history building with- 
out making the needed repairs, the first floor being opened to visitors 
on April 11 and the second floor on April 22. 

Advantage was taken of the closing of the exhibition halls to give 

additional attention to classifying, arranging, labeling, and other- 
wise putting in shape the study series in the various departments. 
In the department of geology this also afforded opportunity to thor- 
oughly clean and to some extent rearrange the exhibition series, so 
that when reopened to visitors the halls were more interesting than 
ever. 
From the beginning of the fiscal year until the signing of the 
armistice on November 11, members of the Museum staff in all depart- 
ments continued along the same general lines as last year to render 
service to the various governmental agencies more directly engaged 
in prosecuting America’s part in the great conflict. Much valuable 
assistance was thus given, and the cooperation of the Museum in this 
work has resulted in bringing it into even closer relationship with the 
executive departments with beneficial results. 

War collections——Karly in the fiscal year, in cooperation with the 
War and Navy Departments, the Museum undertook the assembling 
and installation of a collection of materials relating to the late war, 
which will probably form one of the most important collections ever 
undertaken by it, and may, ultimately, need a separate building. It 
is proposed to perpetuate the part taken by the United States in the 
World War by preserving and exhibiting objects graphically illus- 
trating the military, naval, and aerial activities, not only of our own 
side of the conflict but of our opponents as well. 

The value of such a collection can not be overestimated from the 
popular or scientific standpoint, not only forming a fitting and serv- 
iceable supplement to the written and printed records relating 
to the history of the war, but constituting a most notable memorial to 
the patriotic forces represented by the individuals who have con- 
tributed to the preservation of civilization. It will be of the highest 
value for historical and scientific research. . 

The scope of this exhibit includes not only the general military 
equipment, such as tanks, field and machine guns, and other objects 
used by military organizations, naval equipment, including models 
of ships, naval guns, docks, yards, etc., airplanes, battle planes, but 
accessories of all kinds; individual military and naval equipment of 
the various branches of the service, such as clothing, arms, and other 
paraphernalia, military and naval decorations and medals, commemo- 
rative medals of notable events, mementos, trophies, pictures, paint- 
ings, photographs, maps, books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and other 
objects of the same character relating to the progress of the war. 


98 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


As the natural history building was closed and every available 
foot of space in it assigned to the Treasury Department, it became 
necessary to install the material received during the year for the 
war collections in the arts and industries building, and to place the 
large and heavy objects in the open to the west of this building. At 
the close of the year material for the war collections was coming in 
steadily, and it had become necessary also to assign to this subject 
all of the central portion of the ground story and the rotunda of the 
natural history building—space usually reserved for special exhi- 
bitions. 

The Museum is particularly fortunate in having a very excellent 
series of objects showing the development of the airplane, beginning 
with the Langley models, which have been in its possession for a 
number of years, and the first Government-owned aeroplane of the 
world purchased by the United States from Wright Brothers in 1909. 
Through the director of military aeronautics, Bureau of Aircraft 
Production, two types of planes used by the French at the front in 
1917 were received during the past year, and a Curtiss training plane, 
such as used at all the training fields in the United States, and the 
first battle plane constructed in this country for the United States 
Government—the DH-4, made by the Dayton-Wright Airplane Co. 
in 1917. This plane has flown over 100,000 miles and been in the air 
over 1,000 hours. 

Through arrangement with the Army and Navy the Museum is 
planning to exhibit examples of every plane, engine, radio apparatus, 
and other accessory in production in the United States at the time 
of the armistice, and has secured for this exhibit the temporary 
metal structure erected on the Smithsonian grounds in 1917 by the 
War Department for the use of the Air Service. 

Immediate needs of the Museum.—As pointed out in the report of 
three years ago, the pressing needs of the Museum are those for addi- 
tional space for the accommodation of collections and for increase 
in the scientific and technical staff. It is clearly manifest that these 
needs must be met if the institution, with its numerous departments, 
is to keep reasonable pace with the development of the country as 
a whole. The space congestion especially becomes more pronounced 
and embarrassing with each passing day. 

The natural history collections and the laboratories connected 
therewith require for their reasonable accommodation and adminis- 
tration the entire natural history building, a structure erected 
especially for this particular purpose. To-day, however, large areas 
in the building are assigned—and that from necessity—to the rap- 
idly growing collections of the National Gallery of Art, and in larger 
measure even to the great accumulations of historical material relat- 
ing to the late war which are just now demanding adequate atten- 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 99 


tion. The older building, designed to accommodate the nationally im- 
_ portant department of arts and industries, although not adequate in 
space to serve this purpose, is from absolute necessity half filled with 
a great body of unrelated exhibits, representing history, anthro- 
pology, and art. 

The National Gallery of Art, now for the first time taking an 
enviable place among the galleries of the country, is crowded into the 
natural history building without possibility of expansion, and many 
liberally inclined collectors of art works who seek a permanent home 
for their treasures, and who may be favorably disposed toward Wash- 
ington, are necessarily met with the statement that additional col-— 
lections, if acquired, must go into storage. These possible benefac- 
tors of the national collection are thus turned to other institutions 
or to the auction room. The Nation is thus deprived of the possi- 
bility of building up, even by gift and bequest, collections of art, 
such as are highly prized and fully provided for by civilized nations 
generally. The sooner a building devoted to the fine arts, including 
all departments, is provided the more quickly will the American 
people find themselves in the forefront in all that characterizes the 
highest level of civilization. 

American history, one of the most essential and vital of the de- 
partments of museum activity, is not better provided for than art. 
There is no provision for it save in the present overcfowded build- 
ings. A building of an order commensurate with a great national 
purpose is an absolute essential, and its erection should be provided 
for with the least possible delay. 


COLLECTIONS. 


The total number of specimens acquired during the year was ap- 
proximately 526,845. Received in 1,198 separate accessions, they were 
classified and assigned as follows: Department of anthropology, 
12,333; zoology, 442,383; botany, 40,357; geology and mineralogy, 
4,750; paleontology, 26,050; textiles, woods, medicines, foods, and 
other miscellaneous animal and vegetable products, 884; mineral 
technology, 62; and National Gallery of Art, 26. As loans for exhi- 
bition, 3,096 articles were also obtained, mainly for the divisions of 
history and American archeology and the gallery of art. 

Material to the extent of 539 lots was received for special exami- 
nation and report. 

During the year the Museum made its first purchases from the 
Frances Lea Chamberlain fund, adding to the Isaac Lea collection 
of gems and to the Isaac Lea collection of mollusks, respectively. 
Through the generosity of Mr. B. H. Swales, a member of the staff, 
a small fund which has been given the donor’s name was established 


30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


during the year for the purchase of additions to the collection of 
birds. 

The council of the National Academy of Design inaugurated pur- 
chases from the Henry Ward Ranger fund by acquiring a landscape 
by Bruce Crane entitled “ December Uplands.” Under the condi- 
tions prescribed by the will of Mr. Ranger this painting was assigned 
to the Syracuse Museum of Art and can be reclaimed by the Na- 
tional Gallery of Art at any time during the five-year period begin- 
ning 10 years after the artist’s death. 

Anthropology.—The additions to the historical collections during 
the past year have been exceptionally large and are especially inter- 
esting on account of the fact that so many of them relate to the recent 
war with Germany. They also include, however, many objects of note 
connected with the history of the United States prior to that mo- 
mentous conflict.. Of special note in connection with the collection 
received relating to the war are many mementos of persons and events, 
battle-field trophies, military and naval uniforms, insignia, and field 
equipment. ‘These include the Combined Order of Battle Map cor- 
rected up to November 11, 1918, with its accessories, as used by Gen. 
Pershing and his staff at Chaumont, France, throughout the progress 
of the American military movements, showing locations of all 
United States divisions and exact location at the signing of the 
armistice, with the same information as to armies of the Allies and 
enemies, besides a large amount of other information; a most inter- 
esting collection of German military paraphernalia captured during 
the various engagements in which the American troops participated 
and assembled in France by Maj. Gen. H. L. Rogers, United States 
Army, while serving as chief quartermaster of the American Expe- 
ditionary Forces; two French military airplanes used on the western 
front and the first battle plane built in America; collections of in- 
fantry, artillery, cavalry, air service, and chemical warfare equip- 
ment of the type used during the war; a practically complete series 
of the uniforms, insignia, decorations, and medals of the Army and 
Navy; a notable collection of relics of Lieut. Benjamin Stuart Wal- 
cott, United States Army, who entered the French air service as a 
member of the Lafayette Flying Corps, was killed in aerial combat, 
and fell within the German lines December 12, 1917; also loan col- 
lections of uniforms worn by French officers. The war collections 
already received will be supplemented by others until the Museum 
possesses a complete representation of the vast amount of parapher- 
nalia required in the prosecution of a modern war, including repre- 
sentative series of objects actually used during the recent conflict by 
the United States, the Allies, and the enemy countries. 

The most notable collection not connected with the war received 
by the division of history during the past year consists of a very 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 


large and interesting series of costumes and accessories worn by the 
late Richard Mansfield in his extensive repertoire of historic char- 
acters, presented by Mrs. Mansfield. Many other historical relics 
were received, among them the gold medal awarded by act of Con- 
gress to Capt. Thomas Truxtun, United States Navy, in recognition 
of the defeat of the French ship Vengeance, February 1, 1800, lent by 
Mr. Thomas Truxtun Houston; a silver-mounted telescope owned by 
Thomas Jefferson, lent by Brig. Gen. Jefferson Randolph Kean, 
Medical Corps, United States Army; and a jeweled sword presented 
to Maj. Gen. John R. Brooke, United States Army, by American and 
Cuban friends in 1899. 

The operations of the curators of the divisions of ethnology and 
archeology in Arizona have added considerably to the collections 
in archeology, and Dr. W. L. Abbott has supplemented the material 
generously contributed by him in previous years from Celebes with 
a large series of costumes, ornaments, and implements collected by 
Mr. H. C. Raven. Especially interesting are the decorative de- 
signs on the bark cloth used for costumes on these islands. 

In physical anthropology very important accessions from the 
ancient pueblo region were received through Mr. F. W. Hodge, as a 
gift from the Museum of the American Indian, and as a gift from 
Dr. Edwin Kirk valuable crania and other physical remains from 
the territory occupied by the Haida and Tlingit tribes of Alaska. 

Biology—The number of specimens received during the year by 
the department of biology, totaling about 482,740, vastly exceeded 
the number accessioned last year. This great increase was chiefly due 
to the incorporation of the unrivaled collection of Antillean land 
mollusks, aggregating approximately 400,000 specimens, which was 
donated by Mr. John B. Henderson, a regent of the Smithsonian 
Institution. It is one of the most complete and extensive collections 
of its kind in existence not only because it contains nearly all the 
known West Indian species but because of the large number of types 
and authentic specimens which it includes. Among the many other 
important collections received, it may be well to mention the final in- 
stallment of Mr. Raven’s Celebes collections, which we owe to Dr. W. 
L. Abbott’s generosity, and the interesting material from the Collins- 
Garner Expedition to the French Congo, containing as it does, 
besides a large number of birds and smaller mammals, three gorillas 
and several chimpanzees. Secretary Walcott, during his explorations 
in British Columbia, collected several large mammals for the Museum, 
including a mule deer, Rocky Mountain goat, and Rocky Mountain 
sheep, which made a valuable addition to our collections. 

Among the additions to the National Herbarium may be particu- 
larly mentioned about 12,000 plants, chiefly from Mexico, donated by 
Brother G. Arséne and representing the result of eight years’ botani- 


82 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


cal collecting by himself and associates among the Christian Brothers. 
The collection of Philippine plants was greatly increased by the ad- 
dition of two lots, aggregating more than 9,600 specimens, one 
received in exchange from the Bureau of Science, Manila, the other 
acquired by purchase. The South American series was also aug- 
mented considerably by the donation of 1,761 Venezuelan plants by 
Dr. H. Pittier and 1,077 specimens exchanged with the Museu Goeldi 
in Para, Brazil, besides the Museum’s share of about 2,000 specimens 
from the Ecuadorean Andes collected by Dr. J. N. Rose on an 
expedition undertaken jointly with the New York Botanical Gar- 
den and the Gray Herbarium; while exchanges with the last-men- 
tioned institution added approximately 1,450 more South American 
plants. j 

The exhibition collections were closed most of the year on account 
of the space having been turned over to the Bureau of War Risk 
Insurance. However, toward the end of the year the halls on the 
first floor, containing mostly the mammals and birds, including the 
great biological groups, were reoccupied by the Museum and opened 
to the public, after certain additions and improvements in the in- 
stallation had been made. 

Geology—The additions to the collections in this department 
during the year were but 135 lots, aggregating an approximate total 
of nearly 31,000 specimens. This number, although somewhat less 
than that of the preceding year, is, in part, compensated for by the 
unusual value of sundry individual specimens. Among these may be 
mentioned examples of tungsten minerals both from domestic and 
foreign sources, including a magnificent specimen of scheelite pre- 
sented by Dr. J. Morgan Clements, of New York City, and upward 
of 16.5 kilograms of the extraordinary meteorite which fell at Cum- 
berland Falls, in Whitley County, Ky., on the 9th of April, 1919. 

The availability of the Frances Lea Chamberlain fund has enabled 
the department to begin once more a systematic building up of the 
Isaac Lea gem collection. A 7-gram kunzite, a 16-gram black opal 
from Nevada, and 5 beautiful examples of Australian opals of a 
variety heretofore unrepresented in the collections are among the 
more important additions. 

The Middle Cambrian collections obtained by Secretary Walcott 
from Burgess Pass in British Columbia number nearly 7,000 indi- 
vidual specimens, and form an addition of unusual value. The 
same is true of a collection including both fossil invertebrates and 
plants, mainly from Carboniferous and Silurian rocks of Indiana, 
and especially rich in beautifully preserved crinoids. This collec- 
tion, comprising not less than 10,000 specimens, was a gift of Mr. 
Alva Schaefer, of Brazil, Ind. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. oo 


Excellent exhibition materials in the line of vertebrate fossils, 
including part of a skeleton with a skull of the curious amphibial 
Diplocaulus copet from the Permian of Texas; a skull of Mono- 
clonius; a skull, partial skeleton, and two hind paddles of Tylo- 
saurus; aud an articulated series of caudal vertebra of Platycarpus 
are among the more important accessions. Mention should be made 
of the addition to the exhibition series of the mounted skeleton of 
Dimetrodon gigas, which was secured some few years ago. This 
forms the most complete restoration of this extraordinary animal 
that has thus far been secured by any museum in the world. 

Museum work, as in other departments, suffered through interrup- 
tions, including the closing of the exhibition halls, incidental to the 
war, the head curator himself being engaged a part of the time in 
procuring for the National Research Council important materials 
needed in newly devised apparatus. Continual demands were made 
upon the department throughout the entire period of the war for 
materials for experimental purposes, and it is felt that the depart- 
ment fully justified itself in its capacity for supplying that which 
was needed. 

Advantage was taken of the relief from all exhibition work caused 
by the closing of the halls, to complete the records and attend to other 
work such as had heretofore suffered more or less neglect through 
pressure of other duties. . 

Incidental mention may be made of the preparation of 100 lots in 
sets comprising 21 specimens each, illustrating the secular decay of 
rocks and intended primarily for distribution to the agricultural 
schools. Considerable progress was also made in the preparation of 
100 sets of upward of 80 specimens each of ores and minerals which 
are intended for distribution as occasion may demand. This is a 
work which is ordinarily done at odd moments, as no funds are 
directly available for the purpose. 

Textiles—To the collections under the charge of the curator of 
textiles, which, besides textiles, embrace wood technology, medicine, 
food, and animal and vegetable products, the most important addi- 
tion was the collection received by transfer from the Office of the 
Surgeon General of the War Department, consisting of apparatus, 
hospital appliances, and field equipment used by the medical, dental, 
and sanitary corps in the war with Germany, including examples 
of all kinds of equipment of a thousand-bed hospital overseas. At the 
end of the year this was being made ready for the public in connec- 
tion with the war collections on the ground floor of the natural his- 
tory building. 

Among the gifts were medicinal plants, pharmaceutical products, 
pile fabrics, novelty dress fabrics, leather cloth, and other waterproof 
textiles extensively used during the war, knitting and crocheting 


34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


yarns with examples of pattern stitches, an extensive collection illus- 
trating the production, classification, and conservation of foods, with 
many such from the Department of Agriculture and the United States 
Food Administration, and an exhibit illustrative of neglected sources 
of supply of fats and oils for food purposes. 

In making the food exhibits as useful as possible a cooperative ar- 
rangement was entered into with the States Relations Service of the 
Department of Agriculture whereby regular demonstrations on the 
value, use, preparation, and conservation of foods were given at the 
Museum by experts of the department. A large room in the arts 
and industries building was fitted up as a demonstration kitchen and 
space provided for displaying foods, models, and household equip- 
ment. This work soon broadened into a household consultation cen- 
ter, with lectures and demonstrations covering a wide range of sub- 
jects. There were lectures on the Business of the household; Food 
for the family on $2 per day; Direct marketing; What becomes of 
the consumer’s dollar; What to give your children to eat; Milk, its 
nutrition and use; Meat substitutes; Housekeeper’s use of market 
schedules; and Influence of weave structure upon the durability of 
fabrics. ‘The demonstrations included labor-saving appliances for 
the kitchen; the fireless cooker; the pressure cooker; the electric wash- 
ing machine; preserving eggs; cooking dinner in 30 minutes; the one- 
dish meal; invalid cookery; dried milk powder; Christmas sweets; 
sugarless candies; and fruit juices in summer drinks. By classes and 
demonstrations for housekeepers in the mornings and afternoons and 
special classes for war workers at 5 p. m., over 2,100 persons were 
reached during the year. 

Mineral technology.—tin mineral technology the customary work 
of the division was shelved in favor of special activities with a more 
direct bearing on the national emergency. As the war progressed 
the call for specialization on the part of its technical staff increased. 
While the country was still actively involved on a basis of war, 
scarcely a day passed without bringing calls from some governmental 
agency for assistance with reference to one or another industrial 
issue up for consideration on an emergency rating, the questions 
ranging from determining a fair price for mica to determining the 
likelihood of a paralyzing petroleum shortage. As the year ad- 
vanced, however, two absorbing lines of special investigation de- 
veloped to such a degree that during the latter half of the year they 
largely engrossed the attention of the staff. Their general nature 
may be gathered from the titles under which the results were issued. 
One, “A Report on the Political and Commercial Control of the 
Nitrogen Resources of the World,” represents an effort to unravel 
the complexities of the nitrogen situation left behind in the passing 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35 


of the war. The other, “'The Energy Resources, a Field for Recon- 
struction,” coordinates and summarizes the work of several years. 


THH NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. 


The National Gallery of Art is fortunate in the acquirement of 
art works of exceptional importance during the year. Among these 
the most noteworthy is a gift by Mr. Ralph Cross Johnson of 24 
paintings, which comprises selections from the brushes of 19 of 
EKurope’s foremost masters. The Gallery is thus more fully assured 
of a worthy position among the galleries of the Nation. The exten- 
sion of the Gallery’s activities to wider fields than heretofore is 
marked by the acquirement by gift of an installment of a rich col- 
lection of art works of European origin from Rev. A. D. Pell, of 
New York. 

Notwithstanding the prevailing labor conditions much: progress 
was made during the year on the building being erected by the 
Institution at the expense of Mr. Charles L. Freer, on the south- 
western corner of the Smithsonian reservation, to house the Freer 
collections of American and oriental art. The building was entirely 
inclosed at the end of the year, the exterior granite and marble 
walls and the roofs being completed. Work on the interior is now 
progressing satisfactorily, and it is expected that the structure will 
be entirely finished this autumn. 


MEETINGS. 


Shortly after the armistice was declared and as soon as the audi- 
torium, which had been vacated late in November, could be re- 
painted and the chairs replaced, there was inaugurated a series of 
popular lectures, under the auspices of the Institution, on alternate 
Saturday afternoons, between the hours of 4.45 and 5.30, commencing 
January 18,1919. The lecturers and subjects are noted in the report 
of the secretary. 

The meeting facilities afforded by the auditorium and committee 
rooms were also availed of, as follows: 

By the United States Employment Bureau of the Department of 
Labor, for lectures by Dr. Meeker on the gathering and interpreta- 
tion of statistics, and by Dr. Prosser on training of the handicapped ; 
by the Children’s Bureau for a conference on child’s welfare, with 
an illustrated lecture; by the Ordnance Bureau of the War Depart- 
ment for an illustrated lecture by Lieut. Col. G. M. Barnes on battle 
scenes in the World War; by the Artillery Division of the Army for 
an illustrated lecture on the method in camouflaging used by that 
division during the war; by the Public Health Service of the Trea- 
sury Department for a moving picture, “Fit to win,” before the 


36 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


faculties and students of the departments of medicine and dentistry 
of the Georgetown University, with remarks by Asst. Surg. Gen. 
Pierce and by Dr. George E. Kober and Dr. Bruce L. Taylor; by 
various divisions of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance on numerous 
occasions for various purposes; by the American Society of Mam- 
malogists; by the Wild Flower Preservation Society; by the Biologi- 
cal Society of Washington; by the Louisiana Society of Washington, 
with an illustrated lecture by Hon. M. F. Alexander, State commis- 
sioner of conservation, on the work accomplished by the Alabama 
Conservation Commission during the past 10 years; by the National 
Women’s Trade Union League for a lecture by Miss Margaret Bond- 
field, of England, on the new spirit of British labor; by the Mini- 
mum Wage Board of the District of Columbia for a conference; by 
the District of Columbia Chapter of the Sigma Xi for its annual 
meeting and an illustrated lecture by Maj. R. M. Yerkes on the re- 
lationship of Army tests to education and vocational guidance; and 
by the scientific and technical Federal employees for the purpose of 
forming an organization with a view to joining the Federal Em- 
ployees Union. 

The main hall, range, and chapel of the Smithsonian building 
proving inadequate for the annual meeting of the National Academy 
of Sciences in April, the sessions of the last two days were trans- 
ferred to the Museum auditorium. The auditorium was also used 
two days for a conference on the American merchant marine, the 
Hon. Joseph E. Ransdell presiding. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


The distribution of duplicates for educational purposes, chiefly 
to schools and colleges, aggregated 3,441 specimens, while over 5,000 
more were used in procuring additions to the collections through ex- 
changes. Material sent for study to collaborators of the Museum and 
other specialists amounted to 19,851 specimens, mainly zoological. 

During the approximate three months that the natural history 
building was open the attendance of visitors was 94,240 for week 
days and 38,619 for Sundays, an average of 1,149 for week days and 
2,758 for Sundays. From November 10 to April 6 the opening of 
the arts and industries building was extended to include Sundays as 
well as week days, the attendance there for the year being 225,927 on 
week days and 40,605 on Sundays, a daily average of 721 for the 
former and 1,845 for the latter. At the Smithsonian building the 
total attendance was 101,504, with a daily average of 324 persons. 

The publications of the year consisted of two annual reports, 
those for 1917 and 1918, two volumes of proceedings, four bulletins, 
and 71 separate papers. The total distribution of Museum publi- 
cations during the year aggregated 118,332 copies. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 87 


The Museum library was increased by 2,172 volumes and 2,614 
pamphlets and unbound papers, mainly procured by gift or exchange. 
Among the more important acquisitions was a set of catalogues of the 
art collections of J. Pierpont Morgan, presented by J. Pierpont Mor- 
gan, jr., the valuable library of Dr. Richard Rathbun, relating to the 
museums of the world and to natural history subjects, the gift of 
his heirs, and the 12 volumes of its Humanistic Series, donated by 
the University of Michigan. The library now contains 54,685 vol- 
umes and 87,109 pamphlets and unbound papers. 

Respectfully submitted. 

W. ve C. RavENeEL, 
Administrative Assistant to the Secretary 
in charge U. S. National Museum. 
Dr. Cuartzs D. Watcort, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 
Aveust 25, 1919. 
12573°—21—4 


APPENDIX 2. 


REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


Sir: In response to your request I have the honor to submit the 
following report on the researches and other operations of the Bureau 
of American Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, 
conducted in accordance with the act of Congress approved July 1, 
1918, making provision for sundry civil expenses of the Government, 
and following a plan submitted by the chief and approved by you as 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. The act referred to con- 
tains the following item: 

American ethnology: For continuing ethnological researches among the 
American Indians and the natives of Hawaii, including the excavation and 
preservation of archzologic remains, under the direction of the Smithsonian 
Institution, including necessary employees and the purchase of necessary books 
and periodicals, $42,000. 

The ethnological and archeological researches of the staff which 
are considered in the following report being by law restricted to the 
American Indians thus from necessity are more or less limited in 
scope, but notwithstanding this limitation and the intensive work that 
has been done in the past there is no indication that this field has been 
sufficiently cultivated or is approaching exhaustion. It is evident 
that aboriginal manners and customs are rapidly disappearing, but 
notwithstanding that disappearance much remains unknown, and 
there has come a more urgent necessity to preserve for posterity by 
adequate record the many survivals before they disappear forever. 

The remnants of languages once spoken by large populations have 
dwindled to survivals spoken by one or more centenarians, and when 
they die these tongues, if not recorded, will be lost forever. Such a 
fate nearly happened with an Indian language in California last year 
on account of a contagious disease, but fortunately, through the field 
work of one of our staff, it was rescued before its extinction. 

The continued study of the material culture of the Indians has a 
practical economic value. Certain food plants, like maize, and fibers, 
like henequen, have already been adopted from our aborigines, and 
there are others of vast economic value which await investigation. 
Ethnological studies of our Indians along these lines are being made 
by the members of the staff. 

Another instructive line of work the past year relates to the history 
of the Indians both before and after the advent of the Europeans. 

38 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39 


Such studies tend to a broader appreciation of racial character and 
have special value when we reflect how rapidly the Indian population 
is merging into American life. The excavation and repair of pre- 
historic monuments in our Southwest is enlarging our knowledge of 
history as well as attracting more and more tourists and replacing 
threadbare prejudices with saner ideas of Indian possibilities in many 
lines. 

The logical results of the events of the last years appear in the calls 
for information made on the staff for accurate knowledge of other 
races besides the American Indian. It needs no prophet to predict 
that the future will demand an extension of the bureau work to other 
races. The calls for ethnological information on the Indian during 
the past year have been many and varied and considerable time of 
the ethnologists has been taken up in answering the many requests of 
this nature that are made. The chief has given much time to admin- 
istration and routine work. 

In addition to administrative duties the chief has been able to 
devote considerable time to research work in the field and has pre- 
pared for publication several scientific articles, the largest of which 
will soon be published as Bulletin No. 70. These field researches are 
in accordance with the above-mentioned act of Congress, which in- 
cludes the excavation and preservation of archeological remains. 
In September he took the field, continuing his explorations of the 
castles and towers of the McElmo and tributary canyons in south- 
western Colorado, extending his studies westward into southeastern 
Utah as far as Montezuma Canyon. The object was to determine 
the western horizon of the area of the pure type of pueblos and cliff 
dwellings, and to investigate the remains of antecedent peoples from 
which it sprung in order to obtain data bearing on the question of 
the origin of the San Juan drainage culture. The country traveled 
through is especially rich in prehistoric towers and castellated build- 
ings, but contains also many clusters of mounds formed by fallen, 
walls of large communal buildings, many of which were wholly or 
partially unknown to science. The work was largely a reconnoissance 
and no extensive excavations or repair work was attempted. Special 
attention. was paid to the structure and probable use of towers which 
are combined with cliff houses like Cliff Palace, or great villages like 
those of the Mummy Lake and upper San Juan and its tributaries. 
Among the most significant new towers discovered were two found 
in McLean Basin, near the old Bluff City trail not far from the State 
line of Utah and Colorado. The McLean Basin ruin has a rec- 
tangular shape, with a round tower on one corner and one of semi- 
circular form on the diagonally opposite angle, each 15 feet high. 
The building on which these towers stand must have presented a 
very exceptional appearance in prehistoric times before its walls 


40 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


had fallen. Another ruin found in a cave in Sand Canyon is in- 
structive on account of its being the only one yet found with a 
single kiva of the unit type. It was probably a ceremonial cave, 
the room showing scanty evidence of having been inhabited. 

One of the discoveries made was the recognition that the build- 
ings on McElmo Bluff had a crude masonry characterized by stones 
set on edge, the walls being made of adobe and logs. The stones 
of one or more rooms on this site were large, indicating megalithic 
stone houses. All the data assembled indicate that they antedated 
the fine horizontal masonry of the pueblos and cliff dwellings. 

While in the field the chief carried on a correspondence with Mr. 
Van Kleeck, of Denver, owner of the Aztec Spring Ruin, which led 
to that ruin being presented to the National Park Service and later 
accepted by the Secretary of the Interior. The presentation of this 
interesting ruin to the Government is important and it is to be hoped 
that it will later be excavated and repaired and thus present an addi- 
tional attraction to tourists and an important aid to the archeologist 
in the interpretation of this type of southwestern ruin. 

In May the chief visited Austin, Tex., and inaugurated work on 
the antiquities of that State, the archeology of which has been 
neglected. . This work is now being prosecuted by Prof. J. E. Pearce, 
of the University of Texas, and bids fair to open up a most instruc- 
tive chapter in a field of which we know comparatively little. Im- 
portant discoveries have been made in the aboriginal workshops and 
village sites at Round Rock and near Austin, where fine flint imple- 
ments are very abundant. The work will be continued into the 
timbered region of eastern Texas, where we find pottery related to 
that of Louisiana and Arkansas and evidences of a radically differ- 
ent prehistoric culture from that of central Texas. 

Mr. James Mooney, ethnologist, at the beginning of the fiscal year 
was at his former field of labor among the Kiowa and associated 
tribes of western Oklahoma, where several months were devoted to 
the collection and revision of material and observations of cere- 
monies among the Kiowa, Comanche, Kiowa Apache, Cheyenne, 
Arapaho, Caddo, and Wichita in continuation of studies of their 
aboriginal heraldry, social and military organization, and religion. 

Since his return to Washington in November he has been employed 
chiefly in the coordination of material obtained in the field and in 
the compiling of data for reply to current letters of ethnologic 
inquiry. 

Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, devoted a considerable part of 
his time during the past year to the collection of material from 
published sources for a study of the economic background of the life 
of the American Indians north of Mexico. This involves an exami- 


f 
j 


i 
; 
: 
; 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41 


nation of the sources, location, and quantity of food supplies and of 
new materials used in the industrial life of the various tribes—mate- 
rials of wood, stone, bone, shell, etc. In this way it is hoped that a 
more complete understanding of the density and distribution of the 
prehistoric population may be reached, and the location and sig- 
nificance of trade routes established. A clearer idea is also sought 
of the shifts in population undoubtedly brought about by the intro- 
duction of corn. Without some study of the kind no proper estimate 
of the social and religious institutions of the people of prehistoric 
America is possible. 

His work on the languages of the Indians of the lower Mississippi 
Valley has been continued, and at the end of the year it was directed 
particularly to the preparation of a grammatical sketch of the 
Natchez language from materials collected by him during the last 
10 years from one of the three surviving speakers of that tongue. 

In April Dr. Swanton visited Oklahoma in order to collect addi- 
tional information regarding the little understood and now almost 
forgotten social systems of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. 
Although small in bulk, the material obtained in the course of the 
investigation is valuable. It has already been incorporated into a 
manuscript paper on the social organization and social customs of 
the Indians of the Muskhogean stock. During the trip he also 
secured the. services of an educated Chickasaw in writing texts in 
his native tongue, and one of these has already been received. 

Before his return to Washington, Dr. Swanton visited Anadarko, 
where he learned that the language of the Kichai Indians is on the 
point of extinction, and began the collection of a vocabulary. He 
has made arrangements for more extended work upon this language 
in the fall. 

He has submitted two papers for publication during the year, 
first a philological paper entitled “A Structural and Lexical Com- 
parison of the Tunica, Chitimacha, and Atakapa Languages,” which 
is being published as Bulletin 68, in which he believes he has shown 
the relationship of what had hitherto been classed as three inde- 
pendent stocks; and, second, an extended historical study of the 
Creek Indians and their neighbors. 

Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnologist, on his return from field work, 
July 5, 1918, took up the final reading of the proofs of his report in 
the Thirty-second Annual Report of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology. These proofs were sent to the Printing Office November 9, 
1918, and tho printed report was ready for distribution May 12, 1919. 

At this time he also took up the work of preparing for the press 
the texts, with free and interlinear translations, of an Onondaga 
version of the Myth of the Beginnings, the Genesis Myth of the 
Troquoian peoples, as the second part of Iroquoian Cosmology, the 


42 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


first part having been printed in the Twenty-first Annual Report of 
the bureau. The copying of the pencil text was completed, aggre- 
gating 316 typewritten pages. This includes the supplementary 
myth of much later date than the accompanying version of the Myth 
of the Beginnings. The most interesting feature of the supplemen- 
tary myth is the naive description of one of the most remarkable 
figures developed by the cosmic thinking of Iroquoian poets. This 
potent figure, in whose keeping are life and the endless interchange 
of the seasons, is most striking in his external aspect—one side of his 
body being composed of living flesh and the other of crystal ice. In 
the longer preceding myth, to which this is supplemental, the Master 
of Life is an independent personage, and so also is his noted brother, 
the Master of Winter, the Winter God, whose body is composed of 
crystal ice. The Life God, or Master of Life, controlled the sum- 
mer, and his brother, the Winter God, controlled the winter. So in 
this peculiar figure there appears the inceptive fusing together of two 
hitherto independent gods who were brothers because they dwelt 
together in space and time. 

This remarkable figure is, in fact, the symbol of the absorption of 
the personality—the functions and activities—of the Master of 
Winter (the Winter God) by the Master of Life and his powerful 
aids, manifested in the power of the Master of Life (the Life God) 
to save and to protect from dissolution and death his many wards, 
all living things that comprise faunal and floral life. This fact 
emerges from the experience of the human race from year to year. 
This submergence of one divine personality in that of another is a 
process of cosmic thinking encountered in the mythic philosophy of 
other races. This figure, as described in this text, is worthy of inten- 
Sive study by the student of comparative mythology and religion. 
The pencil texts of these myths aggregate 1,057 pages and the type- 
written 316 pages. The tentative draft of the free translations of 
these texts aggregates 250 pages of typewriting. Some work was 
also done in supplying the first text with a literal interlinear trans- 
lation. This will be ready for the press at an early date. 

Mr. Hewitt also continued work on his league material, in which 
he completed the copying of the corrected and amended native text 
of the tradition of the founding of the Iroquois League, or Confedera- 
tion by Deganawida, making 189 typewritten pages, and also the 
amended and corrected text of the Chant of the Condoling and 
Installation Council, detailing some of the fundamental laws of the 
league; this occupies 13 pages. 

Upon request, Mr. Hewitt also submitted an article on the League 
of the Iroquois and Its Constitution for the Annual Report of the 
Smithsonian Institution; it occupies 30 typewritten pages. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 


Mr. Hewitt has also attended the meetings of the United States 
Geographic Board, on which he represents the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution. 

As custodian of manuscripts, Mr. Hewitt has charged out and 
received back such items as were required by collaborators. 

Mr. Hewitt also spent much time and study in the preparation of 
matter for official replies to letters of correspondents of the bureau 
or to those which have been referred to the bureau from other depart- 
ments of the Government. 

On May 12, 1919, Mr. Hewitt left Washington on field duty. His 
first stop was on the Onondaga reservation, situated about 8 miles 
south of Syracuse, N. Y. There he was able to record in native text 
all of the doctrines of the great Seneca religious reformer, Skanyo- 
daiyo (“ Handsome Lake”). This is an important text, as it will 
serve to show just how much was original native belief and how 
much was added by the reformer from his impressions formed from 
observing the results of European intrusion. This text contains 
about 14,000 native terms. He also recorded the several remnant 
league rituals and chants which are still available on this reserva- 
tion. But they are so much abbreviated and their several parts so 
confused and intermixed one with another that with these remains 
alone it would be absolutely impossible to obtain even an approxi- 
mate view of their original forms and settings—a most disappoint- 
ing situation for the recorder. Only the most elementary and super- 
ficial knowledge of the structure and constitution of the Iroquois 
League survives here. 

Having completed his projected work at this reservation, Mr. 
Hewitt. went, May 31, to the Six Nations reservation on Grand 
River, Ontario, Canada. Here he resumed the analysis, correction, 
amendation, and translation of the league texts which he had re- 
corded in previous years. Satisfactory progress was made in this 
work up to the time of the close of his field assignment. 

During the year Mr. Francis LaF lesche, ethnologist, devoted a 
part of his time to the task of assembling his notes taken at the time 
of his visit among the Osage people in the month of May, 1918. 
These notes relate to the tribal rite entitled Ga-hi’-ge O-k’o", The 
Rite of the Chiefs. The ritual contains 27 wi’-gi-es (recited parts), 
20 of which belong to individual gentes and 7 of which are tribal. 

In this ritual is embodied the story of the four stages of the de- 
velopment of the tribal government, including both the military and 
the civil forms, beginning with the chaotic state of the tribal exist- 
ence. 

The securing of the information relating to this rite required con- 
siderable tact, patience, and time, because the men familiar with all 
the details still regard the ancient rites with reverence and supersti- 


44. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


tious awe. The transcribing of the wi’-gi-es from the dictaphone 
records and the translation of the words from the Osage into the 
English language were laborious and tedious tasks. This rite will 
soon be entirely forgotten, as it has been abandoned now for a num- 
ber of years, and the rescuing of it for preservation has been timely. 

This rite, which will make the first part of the volume now being 
completed for publication, covers 182 typewritten pages without the 
illustrations, maps, and diagrams. 

The office of hereditary chief has been abandoned and since 1881 
has been elective. 

Upon the completion of The Rite of the Chiefs, the work of ar- 
ranging for publication the ritual entitled Ni’-ki Wa-tho", Song of 
the Sayings of the Ancient Men, was taken up. This ritual tells of 
the origin of the people of the Ho*’-ga subdivision of the Ho*’-ga 
great tribal dual division. The story of their descent from the sky 
to the earth and of their subsequent movements is put into wi’-gi-e 
form and recited at the initiatory ceremonies. Each gens has its own 
version of the story and has in it a proprietary right, a right that in 
olden times was not infringed upon by the others. 

Mr. LaFlesche was fortunate in becoming acquainted with an 
Osage by the name of Xu-tha’-wa-to®-1" and of winning his friend- 
ship. This man belonged to the Tsi’-zhu Wa-no® gens of the Tsi’-zhu 
great tribal dual division. Without the slightest hesitation he recited 
for Mr. LaF lesche the Ni’-ki Wi’-gi-e of his own gens, and he also 
gave with it some of the shorter wi’-gi-es that accompany certain 
ceremonial acts of the ritual. 

These origin rituals when completed will cover more than 220 type- 
written pages, to which two short wi’-gi-es of a like character, nearly 
ready, will be added. These pages added to those of The Rite of the 
Chiefs will bring the number of typewritten pages, without the illus- 
trations, close to 430, 

The Fasting Ritual, which was completed some time ago, and 
covers 492 pages, exclusive of the illustrations, and the two rituals 
above referred to, will make the first volume of a projected work on 
the Osage tribe. 

On July 1, Dr. Truman Michelson, ethnologist, visited Tama, 
Iowa, and completed his field work on the grammatical analysis of 
the text of “The Owl Sacred Pack of the Fox Indians.” On his 
.return to Washington he worked out a practically exhaustive list of 
verbal stems and submitted a manuscript for publication. He also 
observed mortuary customs under peculiarly fortunate conditions 
and obtained a number of texts written in the current syllabary on 
mortuary customs, eschatology, etc. He restored phonetically and 
translated, with a few exceptions, 310 personal names. He verified a 
previous discovery that certain gentes have their own peculiar names 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. | 45 


for dogs and horses, and translated 127 of these names for a forth- 
coming paper on Fox sociology. Dr. Michelson finished the correc- 
tion of Jones’ Ojibwa Texts, part 2, which with part 1, previously 
corrected by him, will form the basis of a proposed sketch of Ojibwa 
grammar. During the fiscal year he also from time to time furnished 
data to answer official correspondence. 

The beginning of the fiscal year found Mr. J. P. Harrington, 
ethnologist, at Taos, N. Mex., engaged in the correction and comple- 
tion of his manuscript on the Tiwa language. The Taos material of 
the late Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, which is of considerable bulk and great 
value, was also checked up and made more complete, especially in its 
linguistic aspects. The close genetic relationship of the Tanoan 
dialects of New Mexico with Kiowa is remarkable, a very large num- 
ber of stems and affixes having practically the same sound, while the 
grammar runs parallel throughout. Certain subtle and unusual 
phonetic hardenings occurring in these languages make it impossible 
to assume anything but common descent from a not very remote 
ancestral tongue. ‘These discoveries open up far-reaching specula- 
tions and problems with regard to the origin of the Pueblo Indians. 

In August Mr. Harrington proceeded to southern California, 
where he continued his studies of the Chumashan Indians, most of 
the time being devoted to the Venturefio, which was also the dialect 
most successfully studied. During the course of the work the last 
good informant on the language of La Purisima died. Important 
information was recorded on the ancient customs attending birth, 
marriage, and death, and some idea was gleaned of the manner 
of conducting primitive pre-Spanish fiestas. Data on native foods 
was also obtained, including detailed descriptions of the prepa- 
ration of acorn and other vegetal foods in this region, information 
on these processes having never before been recorded. For example, 
in the preparation of acorns various species were employed, and also 
certain individual trees were noted for their preferable fruit, but the 
final palatableness of the acorn mush depended largely on the pa- 
tience and skill of the woman who prepared it. A kind of acorn 
bread was also prepared by cooling the mush in small molds which 
were placed in running water. Certain other vegetal foods, as the 
pit of the islay or California wild cherry, required long and com- 
plicated preparation. As primitive beverages may be mentioned 
toasted chia or similar seeds stirred up with the fingers in cold 
water; a satisfying drink made by soaking the bark of the ash in 
water; blackberries crushed in water; and a drink prepared from the 
fruit of the manzanita. A delicious sugar was obtained from a 
species of reed, and the fruit of the juniper was ground into a sweet, 
yellowish food. Interesting snatches of information reveal the 
former plenitude of fish and game. Fishing paraphernalia was evi- 


46 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


dently quite highly developed, both nets and harpoons having been 
in use, but the whale was not hunted, although the flesh of stranded 
whales was eagerly made use of. 

Mr. Harrington returned to Washington at the close of May and 
spent the following month in the preparation of manuscript material. 


SPECIAL RESEARCHES. 


Dr. Franz Boas, honorary philologist, has been engaged in the 
correction of the proof of the Thirty-fifth Annual Report. Contin- 
ued correspondence with Mr. George Hunt, of Fort Rupert, Van- 
couve? Island, has added a considerable amount of new ees! 
to the original report. 

Preparatory work for the discussion of the ethnology of the Kwa- 
kiut] Indians was also continued during the present year. A chap- 
ter on place names and another one on personal names and material 
for maps accompanying the chapters on place names has been sub- 
mitted. Thanks are due to Dr. Edward Sapir, of the Geological 
Survey of Canada, through whose kindness the detailed surveys of 
the land office of British Columbia have been utilized. Other de- 
tailed maps showing the distribution of garden beds and charts 
illustrating the genealogies of a number of families have been pre- 
pared. 

After the unfortunate death of Mr. Haeberlin, the work on the 
Salish material was transferred to Miss Helen H. Roberts, who, in 
the course of the year, completed the study of the basketry of the 
Salish Indians. A considerable amount of additional information, 
the need for which developed during the work, was supplied by Mr. 
James Teit, who, at Dr. Boas’s request, and following detailed 
questions, reported on special aspects of the decorative art of the 
Thompson Indians. This work has been carried on with the con- 
tinued financial support of Mr. Homer E. Sargent, whose interest 
in ethnological work in the Northwest has already furnished most 
important material. During the year the work on the map accom- 
panying the discussion of the distribution of the Salish tribes was 
also completed. 

Work on the second part of the HE ABSdK of American Indian 
Languages also progresses. The completed sketches of the Alsea 
language, by Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg, and that of the Paiute, by 
Dr. Edward Sapir, were received by the end of the preceding fiscal 
year, and the editorial work on these sketches has nearly been com- 
pleted. These two sketches and that of the Kutenai, which has 
partly been written, will complete the second volume of the Hand: 
book. 

Dr. Walter Hough, curator of ethnology, was detailed to continue 
archeological work in the White Mountain Apache Reserve, Arizona, 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. . AN 


on ruins reconnoitered in 1918. Dr. Hough was aided in his field work 
by Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Jacques, of Lakeside, by whom his work was 
much facilitated. Field work was especially devoted to the ruins 
called by the Apaches Nustegge Toega, “ Grasshopper Spring,” and 
clusters of sites in the near vicinity which form a very large group, 
indicating extensive intermingling of cultures. The main cluster 
stands in the open green valley and consists of two great heaps of 
stones covered with squaw bush, walnut, juniper, and pine, with occa- 
sional fragments of projecting walls, evidences of two large compact 
pueblos separated by Salt River draw. The west village (four or 
five stories high) has a court near the south end, 90 by 140 feet, con- 
nected with a small plaza, and covers more than an acre. The east 
village is more than half an acre in area. North of the west village 
is a plaza 300 feet long, flanked in part on the west by an isolated 
clan house of 18 rooms. The six ruins in the cluster that may be 
regarded as clan houses differ in size and arrangement of rooms and 
in general show considerable skill in construction. A third form of 
building west of the large village is indicated by large rectangular 
areas outlined with building stones scattered over the level ground. 
The foundations are of four or five courses, but never were buried 
more than 18 inches, indicating that they did not support a heavy 
superstructure. Two lenticular rubbish heaps, measuring 60 by 72 
feet and 4 feet high, lie on the meadow 100 yards south of the walls 
of the large village. A feature of Pueblo masonry discovered here 
was retaining walls of quite large stone set on bedrock, apparently 
intended to counter lateral thrust. of heavy walls. Several rooms 
were cleared out by Apache laborers under Dr. Hough’s direction 
and many artifacts and some human skeletal material were ob- 
tained. : 

Mr. Neil M. Judd, curator of American archeology, prosecuted 
archeological field work in certain caves in Cottonwood Canyon 
which he had visited in 1915. He successfully investigated five pre- 
historic ruins in Cottonwood Canyon caves during the two weeks in 
which work was possible. Walls of houses were found to be built 
entirely of adobe, as well as the customary structures made of stone 
bound with clay mortar. Associated with these dwellings were rooms 
of still another type—houses whose walls consisted of vertical posts 
set at intervals and joined by masses of adobe. It will be noted that 
all three types closely resemble those structures exposed during the 
excavation of mounds in central Utah and previously reported.* 

The dwellings in “ Kiva Cave ” form the best preserved. cliff village 
yet visited by Mr. Judd north and west of the Rio Colorado. Two 
of the four houses visited are practically intact; the ceremonial 


1 Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 66, No. 3, pp. 64-69; No. 17, pp. 103-108; vol, 68, Ne. 
12, p. 83. 


48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


chamber, from which the ruin takes its name, being in excellent con- 
dition, although constantly exposed to the snow and summer rains. 
After excavating this cave considerable restoration was attempted in 
order that walls weakened by action of the elements and by thought- 
less visitors might be preserved for years to come. At the suggestion 
of Mr. B. A. Riggs a fence was constructed around the house to keep 
cattle from that portion of the cave. 

Buildings with masonry walls were also found in “ Ruin Cave,” 
but in this case were built directly upon remains of other structures 
of an entirely different character. The latter are usually circular 
and their walls were formed of posts to which horizontal willows 
were bound at intervals of 7 or 8 inches; adobe mud was pressed 
between these posts and over the willows, but additional and larger 
supports were required to take the great weight of the roof. A1- 
though these structures lie generally beneath the stone houses, it is 
evident that both types were built by the same people and the oc- 
cupancy of the cave was at no time long interrupted. 

Prehistoric house remains were also found in each of the other 
three caves excavated, but they consisted chiefly of small rooms with 
walls constructed entirely of adobe. Still other ruins were discovered 
high up under the ledges that lie on either side of Cottonwood Canyon, 
but unusual conditions prevented examination of these. 

Upright sandstone slabs invariably form the inner base of the walls 
in ruins throughout the region under consideration, a fact which con- 
nects them with the so-called “slab-house” people of the San Juan 
drainage. Whether there is, in fact, any justification for this term re- 
mains yet to be proven, but the cultural relationship of the prehistoric 
peoples in southwestern Utah with those south of the Rio Colorado 
is at last definitely established. 

The bureau purchased from Miss Frances Densmore papers on 
“Chippewa Remedies and General Customs” and “Chippewa Art.” 
The latter article has 164 pages, with 42 pages of old Chippewa de- 
signs and numerous photographs pertaining to industries, medicinal 
plants, customs, and toys of children, games, processes of weaving, 
tanning, and other industries. ‘The lists of plants were identified by 
Mr. Paul C. Standley. 

Miss Densmore likewise submitted much new manuscript material 
on the music of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Pawnee. With this addi- 
tion her account of the Mandan-Hidatsa music contains 340 pages, 
more than 40 illustrations, and two new forms of graphic representa- 
tion of their progression. This article is now ready for publication. 

An important field of aboriginal music thus far not sufficiently in- 
vestigated is among the Pawnee. While engaged in the study of the 
music of this tribe at Pawnee, Okla., Miss Densmore witnessed a 
Hand Game, the Buffalo, Lance, and two Victory dances, and later 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 49 


recorded on the phonograph the numerous songs sung at the three 
first gatherings. This material, with musical transcription tabulated 
and descriptive analyses, has been purchased by the bureau. 

Dr. Ale’ Hrdli¢ka, curator of physical anthropology, was detailed 
to make an examination of the archeological remains of southwest- 
ern Florida, especially of the shell heaps along the coast south of 
Key Marco, a region very little explored by archeologists and one of 
the least known sections of that State. In spite of difficulties, Dr. 
Hrdlicka’s field work was successful. He visited several groups of 
shell heaps of large size as yet unrecorded and opened up a most in- 
structive field for future exploration in a report which has been 
presented for publication. He also made highly important observa- 
tions on physical features of the remnants of Indians that still in- 
habit the little known regions of Florida. 

Mr. David I. Bushnell, jr., continued the preparation of manuscript 
for the Handbook of Aboriginal Remains East of the Mississippi, 
adding various notes to the manuscript. He likewise added about 30 
pages to the manuscript entitled “ Native Villages and Village Sites 
Kast of the Mississippi,” now being printed as Bulletin 69. During 
the same period he completed a manuscript bearing the title “ Native 
Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Mississippi,” which is 
to appear as Bulletin 71 of the bureau series. 

With an allotment from the bureau Mr. Gerard Fowke has been 
engaged in special archeological investigations in the Ozark region 
of central Missouri. His careful detailed studies have been confined 
to the numerous caves in that region. 

If “ cave men,” using this term to designate the predecessors of any 
race or tribe known to history, ever existed in the Mississippi Valley, 
we would find in no part of it natural features better adapted for his 
requirements than the Ozark Hills, but so far not the slightest trace 
of his presence has been revealed. Products of human industry have 
been reported as occurring under other conditions at great depths, 
even at the bottom of the loess, though in all such cases there is some 
uncertainty as to the correctness of the observations. On the con- 
trary, whatever may be the depth of the deposit containing them, the 
artificial objects exhumed are uniform in character from top to bot- 
tom. The specimens found on the clay or solid rock floor are of the 
same class as those barely covered by the surface earth. Moreover, 
when they cease to appear they cease absolutely. 

By careful search in the caves and rock shelters of which the In- 
dian known to history availed himself extensive and interesting 
museum collections can be made. To find an earlier man it will be 
necessary to investigate caverns which he found suitable for occu- 
pancy and in which the accumulation of detritus, from whatever 
source, has been sufficient to cover his remains so deeply that they 


50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


can not be confused with those of a later period, and it may be neces- 
sary to discover with them bones of extinct animals. No examina- 
tion of a cavern is complete unless a depth is reached where glacial 
deposits are undeniably of such age as to antedate the possible ap- 
pearance of man upon the scene. The Ozark region promises im- 
portant revelations in the study of prehistoric man in America. 

Mr. Fowke has thoroughly investigated one of the caves in this 
region and has prepared an important report on his work which will 
later be published by the bureau. He has also transmitted to the 
National Museum a collection which is the largest yet obtained from 
this locality. The results of the work thus far are technical and can 
not be adequately stated in this place, but are not only very important 
additions to the archeology of the region investigated but also highly 
significant in comparative studies of ancient man in North America. 


MANUSCRIPTS. 


In addition to the manuscripts submitted for publication by the 
bureau there was also obtained by purchase an article by Mr. C. S. 
Simmons dealing with the Peyote religion. 


EDITORIAL WORK AND PUBLICATIONS. 


The editing of the publications of the bureau was continued 
through the year by Mr. Stanley Searles, assisted by Mrs. Frances 
S. Nichols. The status of the publications is presented in the follow- 
ing summary: 

PUBLICATIONS ISSUED. 


Thirty-second Annual Report.—Accompanying paper: Seneca Fiction, Leg- 
ends, and Myths (Hewitt and Curtin). 

Bulletin 59.—Kutenai Tales (Boas). 

Bulletin 61.—Teton Sioux Music (Densmore). 

Bulletin 64.—The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British 
Honduras (Gann). 

Bulletin 65.—Archeological Explorations in Northeastern Arizona (Kidder 
and Guernsey). 

Bulletin 66.—Recent Discoveries of Remains Attributed to Harly Man in 
America (Hrdlitka). 

List of publications of the bureau. 

Introduction to Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths (Hewitt) —F¥rom Thirty- 
second Annual Report (Hewitt and Curtin). 


PUBLICATIONS IN PRESS OR IN PREPARATION. 


Thirty-third Annual Report—Accompanying papers: (1) Uses of Plants by 
the Indians of the Missouri River Region (Gilmore) ; (2) Preliminary Account 
of the Antiquities of the Region between the Mancos and La Plata Rivers in 
Southwestern Colorado (Morris); (8) Designs on Prehistoric Hopi Pottery 
(Fewkes) ; (4) The Hawaiian Romance of Laieikawai (Beckwith). 

Thirty-fourth Annual Report—Accompanying paper: Prehistoric island cul- 
ture areas of America (Fewkes). 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51 


Thirty-fifth Annual Report —Accompanying paper: Ethnology of the Kwakiutl 
(Boas). 

Thirty-sizxth Annual Report.—Accompanying paper: Harly History of the 
Creek Indians and their Neighbors (Swanton). 

Bulletin 40.—Part 2: Handbook of American Indian Languages (Boas). 

Bulletin 60.—Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities: Part 1, Introduc- 
tion; The Lithic Industries (Holmes). 

Bulletin 67.—Alsea Texts and Myths (Frachtenberg). 

Bulletin 68.—Structural and Lexical Comparison of the Tunica, Chitimacha, 
and Atakapa Languages (Swanton). . 

Bulletin 69.—Native Villages and Village Sites Hast of the Mississippi (Bush- 
nell). 

Bulletin 70.—Prehistoric Villages, Castles, and Towers (Fewkes). 

Bulletin 71—Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial East of the Missis- 
sippi (Bushnell). 


DISTRIBUTION OF PUBLICATIONS. 


The distribution of the publications has been continued under 
the immediate charge of Miss Helen Munroe, assisted by Miss Emma, 
B. Powers. 

Publications were distributed as follows: 


Reports;and separatesses <so7 ry mre) aes oi vaeenis eon eee 2, 742 
Bulletins jand. separates: <c7s Ci Se ea a Be tea ea De ae aly 8, 440 
Contributions to North American Ethnology_________-____________-__ 10 
SYGATE (0 EY STU SYN ON aA Ce tN NI CAI CHI 10 
PT EAGS Ce STA EAITT OUTS eae I Qi Inge Def ee NT Be EE, 281 

11, 483 


As compared with the fiscal year 1918, there was an increase of 
4,189 publications distributed. This was doubtless due to the fact 
that whereas in the fiscal year 1918 only Bulletin 63 was distributed 
to the mailing list, during the fiscal year 1919 there were distributed 
to the list Bulletins 59, 61, 64, and 66, and the Thirty-second Annual 
Report. Fourteen addresses have been added to the mailing list 
during the year and 36 dropped, making a net decrease of 22. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Mr. DeLancey Gill, with the assistance of Mr. Albert E. Sweeney, 
continued the preparation of the illustrations of the bureau and gave 
the usual time to photography of visiting Indians. A summary of 
this work follows: 


INE SATIVES TOT Dull Caton WOE kee ea ee wana al seleaed Ms NE 138 
Nerative films exposed In feldis 2222 ee ee ak 228 
VEINS COpep ata T CAO Gn) Oy 0 el le UR eR yi i A a I = 603 
IBTO LOS GY CO plese mee ik RS 5 EN REN PAE Tate aE aces ve, Leanne ne We RD is Ae es 128 
Drawings for” publication Lett wse yo as Me See aed Oe 200 
Minstrationsimade ready, for engraving. 2 2 es ey 2, 000 
META VAG LP LOGES ai Ui Lees see ee fea ee Meg eg paral Ne A he 310 


Colored illustrations inspected at Government Printing Office__________ 10, 000 


52 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
LIBRARY. 


The reference library continued in the immediate charge of Miss 
Ella Leary, assisted by Mr. Charles B. Newman, who was absent a 
short time in the military service. 

During the year 380 books were accessioned, of which 90 were 
acquired by purchase, 160 by gifts and exchange, and 180 by the 
entry of newly bound volumes of periodicals previously received. 
The periodicals currently received number about 760, of which 25 
were received by subscription and 735 through exchange. In addi- 
tion, the bureau acquired 210 pamphlets. The aggregate number of 
books in the library at the close of the year was 22,560; of pamphlets, 
about 14,248. In addition, there were many volumes of unbound 
periodicals. The publication of various European periodicals de- 
voted to anthropology has either been suspended or has ceased. 

The number of books bound during the year was 350. It has been 
almost exclusively work upon the current material—serials grouped 
into volumes and new accessions in paper covers. 

Correspondence relative to new exchanges and missing parts of 
serial publications already in the library was carried on as in pre- 
vious years. Considerable time was given to research work, which 
frequently calls for the preparation of bibliographic lists for corre- 
spondents. 

In addition to the use of its own library, it was found necessary 
to draw on the Library of Congress from time to time for the loan 
of about 400 volumes. The Library of Congress, officers of the execu- 
tive departments, and out-of-town students have made use of the 
library through frequent loans during the course of the year. 

The need by the library of additional shelf room is becoming more 
and more acute. Each day the congestion increases. We have filled 
almost every available foot of shelf space and we are sorely in need 
of more room. 

The recataloguing of books from the old author (card) catalogue 
to a new subject catalogue has continued, and as a result the year 
shows a marked increase in the total of cards filed in the catalogue 
records. 

The Monthly Bulletin for the use of the bureau has been continued 
throughout the year. 

COLLECTIONS. » 


The following collections acquired by members of the staff of the 
bureau, or by those detailed in connection with its researches, have 
been transferred to the United States National Museum: . 

Two skeletoris with skulls, found on the property of the Roxana Petroleum 


Co. of Oklahoma, South Wood River, Ill., and presented by it to this bureau. 
(62630. ) ‘ 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 53 


Twelve prehistoric pottery heads found in Huaxtec mounds and presented to 
Dr. J. Walter Fewkes by Mr. John M. Muir, of Tampico, Mexico. (62931.) 

Thirty-one archeological specimens obtained by Mr. F. W. Hodge at Hawikuh, 
N. Mex., in 1917, as part of the cooperative work of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology and the Museum of the American Indian (Heye Foundation). 
(63154. ) 

‘Forty archeological specimens and an Indian skull, from different localities 
in Arizona; collected for the bureau by Dr. Walter Hough in 1918. (63156.) 

Two hundred and eighty-eight archeological specimens and two lots of skeletal 
material, from Gourd Creek, Mo.; collected by Gerard Fowke in 1918. (63157.) 

A specimen of slag with embedded charred corn; collected by Dr. J. Walter 
Fewkes, from a.ruin in Mancos Valley, 3 miles west of the bridge on the 
Cortez-Ship Rock Road, Colorado. (63174.) 

Sandstone pipe found on Black Warrior River, Tuscaloosa County, Ala., and 
presented to the bureau by Mr. F. H. Davis, United States Engineer’s Office, 
Little Rock, Ark. (63509.) 

Pillar stone found at Cerro Cebadilla, Vera Cruz; gift of Dr. H. Adrian, Tam- 
pico, Mexico. (63523.) 

Three well-made clay heads from the neighborhood of Panuco, Mexico; gift 
of Mr. John M. Muir. (63524.) 


PROPERTY. 


Furniture was purchased to the amount of $128.76. The cost of 
typewriting machines was $143.40, making a total of $272.16. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


Clerical.—The correspondence and other clerical work of the office, 
including the copying of manuscripts, has been conducted by Miss 
May S. Clark, clerk to the chief. Mrs. Frances S. Nichols assisted 
the editor. 

There has been no change in the scientific or clerical force. 

Respectfully submitted. 

J. Water Fewxess, Chief. 

Dr. CHartes D, Watcort, 

Secretary Smithsonian Institution. 
12573°—21——_5 


APPENDIX 3. 


REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 


Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the opera- 
tions of the International Exchange Service during the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1919: 

The institution submitted to Congress an estimate of $35,000 for 
carrying on the service during the year. This amount was granted. 
In addition, Congress, at the request of the institution, reappro- 
priated the unexpended balance of the 1918 appropriation, amount- 
ing to $712.90, together with the additional sum of $903.68, for 
payment of liabilities incurred in the maintenance of the service 
during the current fiscal year over and above the amount of the 
regular congressional appropriation. Congress also made the usual 
allotment of $200 for printing and binding. The repayments from 
departmental and other establishments aggregated $1,808.87, making 
the total available resources for carrying on the system of exchanges 
during the fiscal year 1919, $38,625.45. 

During the year 1919 the total number of packages handled was 
270,860—an increase over the number for the preceding year of 3,914. 
The weight of these packages was 291,918 pounds—a gain of 109,093 
pounds. This large increase in weight as compared with the small 
increase in the number of packages is accounted for, in part, by the 
consignments received for transmission to establishments in France 
and Belgium whose libraries were destroyed during the war, and, in 
part, by the accumulations of United States patent specifications 
received for Great Britain, Belgium, and the northern neutrals. 
The former were forwarded in boxes unopened, each box being 
counted as one package only, and the latter consisted entirely of 
heavy packages. 

The publications sent and received by the! exchange service are 
classified under three heads: (1) “ Parliamentary documents”; (2) 
“ Departmental documents”; (3) “ Miscellaneous scientific and liter- 
ary publications.” 

The term “ parliamentary documents,” as here used, refers to pub- 
lications set aside by act of Congress for exchange with foreign 
Governments, and includes not only documents printed by order of 
either House of Congress, but also copies of each publication issued 
by any department, bureau, commission, or officer of the Government. 
The Governments to which this class of publications are forwarded 
send to this country in exchange copies of their own official docu- 
ments for deposit in the Library of Congress. 

54 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 55 


The term “departmental documents” embraces all of the publica- 
tions delivered at the institution by the various governmental de- 
partments, bureaus, or commissions for distribution to their corre- 
spondents abroad, the publications received in return being deposited 
in the various departmental libraries. 

The “miscellaneous scientific and literary publications” are re- 
ceived chiefly from learned societies, universities, colleges, scientific 
institutions, and museums in the United States for transmission to 
similar establishments in all parts of the world. 

The number and weight of the packages of different classes are 
indicated in the following table: 


Packages. Weight. 


Sent. Received. Sent. Received. 


United States parliamentary documents sent abroad. .. d Bat See Ur Se lee ees SS OUP ena sae nce 
Publications received in return for parliamentary docu- 


United States departmental documents sent abroad. -.. Go; 802 os cae cece 103; 205 ese. oo) 
Publications received in return for departmental docu- 


Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications re- 
ceived from abroad for distribution in the United 


Spates led od po dave tdeeebeu rts om dt sede ceheidh yet. oop 8220 then se doctors 16, 934 
TR Gb AREY UE AE SN RU ER 257, 387 13, 473 269, 254 22, 664 
Grandhotel fe east -os9- teense sees ae ee 270, 860 291, 918 


It should be stated in this connection that the disparity indicated 
by the foregoing statistics between the number of packages sent and 
those received is accounted for, in part, by the fact that packages 
transmitted abroad contain, as a rule, only one publication, while 
those received in return often comprise many volumes. In some in- 
stances, especially in the case of publications received in exchange for 
parliamentary documents, the term “ package” is applied to large 
boxes containing many separate publications. Furthermore, many 
returns for publications sent abroad reach their destinations through 
the mail and not through the exchange service. 

Under date of September 12, 1918, the Dutch Exchange Bureau 
reported that five boxes sent by the institution to that bureau in 
January, 1917, had been lost at sea when the steamship by which they 
were being forwarded was torpedoed by the enemy. So far as re- 
ported, this is the fourth instance in which consignments sent to for- 
eign countries by the institution have been lost through hostile action. 

It has not yet been possible to put the service on a prewar basis 
so far as the forwarding of consignments abroad is concerned. Ship- 


56 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ments in boxes are being made as frequently as present conditions 
will permit to all countries except Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hun- 
gary, Montenegro, Roumania, Russia, Serbia, and Turkey. It is not 
thought advisable to forward consignments to these until the peace 
treaties with the enemy countries are finally ratified by the United 
States Government and internal conditions become more settled. It 
is hoped that in the early part of the next fiscal year it will be pos- 
sible to make shipments to all countries. 

To some countries transmissions were not wholly suspended for 
any long period during the war. However, as was to be expected 
during such abnormal times, the institution met with many obstacles 
in its efforts to keep the exchanges open. The charge for ocean 
freight grew to great proportions. The rate to England, for instance, 
at one time reached $5.80 per cubic foot. The charge on shipments to 
that country before the war was $0.16 a cubic foot, thus making the 
increase more than thirty-sixfold. Such rates becoming too exorbi- 
tant, the sending of packages in boxes was discontinued, and the 
mails were resorted to. Late in the fiscal year, when shipments were 
resumed to Belgium and the northern neutrals, the office was almost 
swamped with packages which had been accumulating for those 
countries for many months, 

The chief of the Belgian Service of International Exchanges, in 
reply to a letter addressed to him early in February asking if his 
bureau was in a position to resume the distribution of exchanges, 
stated that there were no longer any obstacles to the renewal of the 
relations which had been interrupted on acount of the encirclement 
of iron and fire in which his country found itself during the war. 
He added: 


I should fail most lamentably in my duty, Mr. Secretary, if I did not add 
to this reply warm thanks in the name of the Belgian Government, in the name 
of our scientific establishments and institutions, and in my own name, for the 
extreme kindness which you have shown us in reserving. for us until the present 
time, all the numerous “ series”? and “ collections,’ one and all of inestimable 
value, which the war has prevented you from transmitting to us at the proper 
time. 

Applications for permission to forward publications abroad 
through the service are being received from time to time, both from 
new and long-established institutions. As an illustration of appre- 
ciation of the value of the service by such organizations, may be 
quoted the following extract from a communication from the New 
York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, acknowledging the re- 
ceipt of the Institution’s letter extending the exchange facilities to 
that college: 


It will mean a good deal to us in developing the exchange of publications for 
the forest library of this college. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 57 


Reference was made in last year’s report to the steps being taken 
by the institution to procure for the war library and museum of 
the French Government at Paris copies of American documents, and 
other material relating to the war, for deposit in a section of that 
library, to be devoted to the part taken by the United States in the 
conflict. A similar request for posters was received during the year 
from the British War Museum, and as complete sets of posters as 
it was possible to procure, have been transmitted to that museum. 
A number of requests for publications issued in this country were 
received from other foreign establishments, and in each instance 
the institution endeavored to comply therewith. 

The secretary of the institution took special steps to assist in the 
rehabilitation of the library of the Society of Sciences, Lille, France, 
whose collections were destroyed during the war. As a result of 
his efforts, several hundred publications were received for transmis- 
sion to that library through the Exchange Service. 

During the fiscal year 1919, 803 boxes were forwarded to foreign 
agencies for distribution, being an increase of 360 over the preced- 
ing 12 months. Notwithstanding this increase in the number of 
boxes sent, the total number is still far below the average for a nor- 
mal year. This is due, in part, to the fact that shipments in boxes 
were suspended until the Ist of February. Up to that date pack- 
ages were sent to their destinations by mail. 

The dates of transmission of the 803 boxes forwarded to foreign 
countries are shown in the following table. Of these boxes 260 con- 
tained full sets of United States official documents for authorized 
depositories: 


Consigninents of exchanges for foreign countries. 


Country. Apnbes Date of transmission. 
Apeentinass ssi tes. SeeeREL 19 | Apr. 8, 1919. 
Beleiumiss hse Sete. 282 72 | Apr, 29, 1919. 
BOLIVAR 3. eae ee) 2 | Mar. 28, 1919. 
TAZ otek 2 Sila. Gener 15 | Feb. 8, Apr. 5, 1919. 
British colonies. .......-.. 5 | Apr. 29, June 12, 1919. 
British Guianas soo oe oe 1 | Mar. 27, 1919. 
Canad ae ecw cenaes sess 24 | Sept. 26, 1918; Jan. 27, Mar. 25, Apr. 21, May 17, June 6, 1919. 
Chile eee ee cee 9 | Apr. 3, 1919. 
Chinas k ABE E ST A, 8 | Jan. 20, 1918; Feb, 28, Mar. 25, May 28, 1919. 
Colombia. oseeces eee ens 6 | Mar. 31, 1919. 
Casta Rica: ees. cence oes 8 | Apr. 4, 1919. 
Cia ns Ree ey on Se 6 | Sept. 26, 1918; Jan. 27, Mar. 25, Apr. 21, May 17, June 6, 1919. 
BO Baier kee sen enna 21 | Feb. 19, 1919. 
Mened or. aaee ooo eck ose 3 | Mar. 4, 1919. 
MEV Dts os Neececaceoaes 14 | Apr. 10, 1919. 
Brancee sce See sce’ 57 | Feb. 8, May 5, 1919. 
Great Britain and Ireland. 196 | Feb, 5, Mar. 12, 25, May 12, June 2, 12, 1919 


Guatemala... 223k: 2 | Mar. 28, 1919. 


58 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Consignments of exchanges for foreign countries—Continued. 


Country. Number Date of transmission. 
Haitisee wee bet Set stg 5 | Apr..9, 1919. 
ONGUTaS Ey oo ate ee 2 | Mar, 4, 1919. 
Midi ae oe eee sone mance: 24 | Feb. 12, June 19, 1919. 
Ttaly 23k eee 31 | June 17, 1919. 
Jamaica en ctet eee ds: . 4 | Mar, 26, 1919. 
Japan see ee wo kms 20 | Apr. 16, 1919. 
IMOXICON Sas sacs ac anee 6 | Sept. 26, 1918; Jan. 27, Mar. 25, Apr. 21, May 17, June 6, 1919. 
Netherlands.............. 54 | Mar. 11, June 30, 1919. 
Nichra ronal. 08e2 she see 1 | Mar, 28, 1919. 
WNORWSYs casetics kc com seat 20 | Feb. 19, 1919. - 
PAPAL IA 2 = cciecice abe arisae 2 | Mar. 28, 1919. 
POVG ES FoF SSE st ones 6 | Apr. 2, 1919. 
Queensland............... 8 | Feb. 5, May 12, June 12, 1919. 
Salvador. ose ota Abeta d 2 | Mar, 28, 1919. 
Spall cece seas oteaa se sese « 15 | Apr. 22, 1919. 
Sweden ses .2ihete ss. ssoses 53 | Feb, 25, 1919. 
Switzerland... . .2. 50-2) 25 | June 80, 1919, 
PPASMMIAMIG «so. es cae anne 9 | Feb. 5, May 12, June 12, 1919. 
Union of South Africa... . 15 | June 26, 1919. 
Wraguaysi35s2 cee ae 7 | Apr. 1, 1919. 
Venezuela... ..2..-...0.2- 5 | Mar. 31, 1919. 
VACEONIAS oie aaa cee ee ee 11 | Feb. 13, 1919. 
Western Australia........ 10 | Feb. 5, May 12, June 12, 1919. 


FOREIGN DEPOSITORIES OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENTAL 
DOCUMENTS. 


Ninety-one sets of United States governmental documents (55 full 
sets and 86 partial sets) were received for distribution in accordance 
with treaty stipulations and under the authority of the congressional 
resolutions of March 2, 1867, and March 2, 1901. 

A complete list of the foreign depositories is given below. Con- 
signments for those countries to which shipments were suspended on 
account of the war will be forwarded to the various depositories as 
soon as the peace treaties are ratified by the United States Gov- 
ernment. 

DEPOSITORIES OF FULL SETS. 


ARGENTINA: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Buenos Aires. 

AUSTRALIA: Library of the Commonwealth Parliament, Melbourne. 

AustTrIA: K. K. Statistische Zentral-Kommission, Vienna. 

BavEN: Universitits-Bibliothek, Freiburg. (Depository of the Grand Duchy of 
Baden.) 

BAvazRiA: K6nigliche Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek, Munich. 

BetcruM: Bibliothéque Royale, Brussels. 

BraziL: Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. “a 

Buenos Arges: Biblioteca de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. (Depository 
of the Province of Buenos Aires.) 

CanapDA: Library of Parliament, Ottawa. 

Cue: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Santiago. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 59 


Cuina: American-Chinese Publication Exchange Department, Shanghai Bureau 

’ of Foreign Affairs, Shanghai. 

CotompstA: Biblioteca Nacional, Bogota. 

Costa Rica: Oficina de Depésito y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, San 
José. 

Cupa: Secretaria de Estado (Asuntos Generales y Canje Internacional), 


Habana. 

DENMARK: Kongelige Bibliotheket, Copenhagen. 

ENGLAND: British Museum, London. 

FRANCE: Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris. 

GERMANY: Deutsche Reichstags-Bibliothek, Berlin. 

Guascow: City Librarian, Mitchell Library, Glasgow. 

GREECE: Bibliothéque Nationale, Athens. ; 

Harri: Secrétaire d’Hitat des Relations Extérieures, Port au Prince, 

Huneary: Hungarian House of Delegates, Budapest. 

InprA: Imperial Library, Calcutta. 

IRELAND: National Library of Ireland, Dublin. 

Itaty: Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Kmanuele, Rome. 

JAPAN: Imperial Library of Japan, Tokyo. 

Lonpon : London School of Heonomics and Political Science. (Depository of the 
London County Council.) 

MAanitTopa: Provincial Library, Winnipeg. 

Mexico: Instituto Bibliografico, Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico. 

NETHERLANDS: Bibliotheek van der Staten-Generaal, The Hague. 

New SoutH WALES: Public Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 

NEw ZEALAND: General Assembly Library, Wellington. 

Norway: Storthingets Bibliothek, Christiania. 

Ontario: Legislative Library, Toronto. 

Paris: Préfecture de la Seine. 

Peru: Biblioteca Nacional, Lima. 

PortTuGAL: Bibliotheca Nacional, Lisbon. 

Prussia: K6nigliche Bibliothek, Berlin. 

QuEBEC: Library of the Legislature of the Province of Quebec, Quebec. 

QUEENSLAND: Parliamentary Library, Brisbane. 

Russia: Imperial Public Library, Petrograd. 

SAxony: K6nigliche Oeffentliche Bibliothek, Dresden. 

SerBia: Section Administrative du Ministére des Affaires Eitrangéres, Belgrade. 

SoutH AUSTRALIA: Parliamentary Library, Adelaide. 

Spatn: Servicio del Cambio Internacional de Publicaciones, Cuerpo Facultativo 
de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arquedlogos, Madrid. 

SWEDEN: Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. 

SWITZERLAND: Bibliothéque Fédérale Centrale, Berne. 

TASMANIA: Parliamentary Library, Hobart. 

TurKkY: Department of Public Instruction, Constantinople. 

Union oF SourH Arrica: State Library, Pretoria, Transvaal. 

Urucuay: Oficina de Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, Montevideo. 

VENEZUELA: Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas. 

Victor1A: Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 

WURETTEMBERG: KOnigliche Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart. 


DEPOSITORIES OF PARTIAL SETS. 
ALBERTA: Provincial Library, Edmonton. 
ALSACE-LORRAINE; K. Ministerium fiir Elsass-Lothringen, Strassburg. 
Bottv1a: Ministerio de Colonizaci6n y Agricultura, La Paz. 


60 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


BreMEN: Senatskommission fiir Reichs- und Auswirtige Angelegenheiten. 

BritisH CotumMeiA: Legislative Library, Victoria. 

Britiso Guiana: Government Secretary’s Office, Georgetown, Demerara. 

Burgarta: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sofia. 

Cryton: Colonial Secretary’s Office (Record Department of the Library), Co- 
lombo. 

Ecuapor: Biblioteca Nacional, Quito. 

Heyer: Bibliothéque Khédiviale, Cairo. 

FinLtaAnp: Chancery of Governor, Helsingfors. 

GuaTEMALA: Secretary of the Government, Guatemala. 

Hampvure: Senatskommission fiir die Reichs- und Auswirtigen Angelegenheiten. 

Hesse: Grossherzogliche Hof-Bibliothek, Darmstadt. 

Honpuras: Secretary of the Government, Tegucigalpa. 

JAMAICA: Colonial Secretary, Kingston. 

LiperiA: Department of State, Monrovia. 

LovurENcO Marquez: Government Library, Lourengo Marquez. 

Ligwreck: President of the Senate. 

MaprAs, PRovINCcE or: Chief Secretary to the Government of Madras, Public 
Department, Madras. 

Matra: Lieutenant Governor, Valetta. 

MontTENEGRO: Ministére des Affaires Etrangéres, Cetinje. 

New Brunswick: Legislative Library, Fredericton. 

NEWFOUNDLAND: Colonial Secretary, St. John’s. 

Nicaragua: Superintendente de Archivos Nacionales, Managua. 

NorktHWEsT TERRITORIES: Government Library, Regina. 

Nova Scotia: Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia, Halifax. 

PanaMA: Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, Panama. 

Paracuay: Oficina General de Inmigracion, Asuncion. 

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: Legislative Library, Charlottetown. 

RoumAntIA: Academia Romana, Bucharest. 

SALVADOR: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, San Salvador. 

Sram: Department of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok. 

Srrarrs SETTLEMENTS: Colonial Secretary, Singapore. 

UNITED PROVINCES OF AGRA AND OuDH: Under Secretary to Government, Alla- 
habad. 

Vienna: Biirgermeister der Haupt- und Residenz-Stadt. 


INTERPARLIAMENTARY EXCHANGE OF OFFICIAL JOURNALS. 
The Governments named below have entered into the interparlia- 
mentary exchange of official journals with the United States and are 


listed to receive copies of the daily issue of the Congressional 
Record: 


Argentine Republic. France. Prussia. 

Australia. Great Britain. Queensland. 
Austria. Greece. Roumania. 

Baden. Guatemala. Russia. 

Belgium. Honduras. Serbia. 

Bolivia. Hungary. Spain. 

Brazil. Italy. Switzerland. 
Buenos Aires, Province of. Liberia. Transvaal. 
Canada. New South Wales. Union of South Africa. 
Costa Rica. New Zealand. Uruguay. 

Cuba. Peru. Venezuela. 
Denmark. Portugal. Western Australia. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 61 
FOREIGN EXCHANGE AGENCIES. 


A letter was received in April, 1919, from the director of the 
National Library in Lisbon, stating that the general secretariat of 
the Library and National Archives had been abolished and that the 
Service of International Exchanges, created by the Brussels Con- 
vention of March 15, 1886, is now conducted under the direction 
of his library. 

Below is given a complete list of the foreign exchange agencies 
or bureaus. Shipments to those countries marked with an asterisk 
were still suspended at the close of the fiscal year. 


ALGERIA, via, France. 

Aneora, via Portugal. % 

ARGENTINA: Comisiédn Protectora de Bibliotecas Populares, Lavalle 1216, 
Buenos Aires. 

Austria :* K. K. Statistische Zentral-Kommission, Vienna. 

AzoRES, via Portugal. 

Betcium: Service Belge des Hchanges Internationaux, Rue des Longs-Chariots 
46, Brussels. 

Bottvia: Oficina Nacional de Estadistica, La Paz. 

Brazit: Servigo de Permutacdes Internacionaes, Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de 
Janeiro. 

British CcLonies: Crown Agents for the Colonies, London. 

BrRiTIsH GUIANA: Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society, Georgetown. 

BritisH HonpurAs: Colonial Secretary, Belize. 

ButesrRia :* Institutions Scientifiques de S. M. le Roi de Bulgarie, Sofia. 

Canary ISLANDS, via Spain. 

CHILE: Servicio de Canjes Internacionales, Biblioteca Nacional, Santiago. 

Cuina: American-Chinese Publication Exchange Department, Shanghai Bureau 
of Foreign Affairs, Shanghai. 

CoLtompBia: Oficina de Canjes Internacionales y Reparto, Biblioteca Nacional, 
Bogota. 

Costa Rica: Oficina de Depésito y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, San 
José. 

DENMARK: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Copenhagen. 

DutcH GUIANA: Surinaamsche Koloniale Bibliotheek, Paramaribo. 

Eeuapor: Ministerio de Relaciones Hxteriores, Quito. 

Heyet: Government Publications Office, Printing Department, Bulagq, Cairo. 

France: Service Francais des Echanges Internationaux, 110 Rue de Grenelle, 
Paris. 

GERMANY :* Amerika-Institut, Berlin, N. W. 7. 

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND: Messrs. William Wesley & Son, 28 Essex Street, 
Strand, London. 

GREECE: Bibliothéque Nationale, Athens, 

GREENLAND, via Denmark. 

GUADELOUPE, via France. 

GUATEMALA: Instituto Nacional de Varones, Guatemala. 

GUINEA, via Portugal. 

Hartt: Secrétaire d’Ktat des Relations Extérieures, Port au Prince. 

Honpuras: Biblioteca Nacional, Tegucigalpa. 

IcELAND, via Denmark. 


62 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Inp1a: Superintendent of Stationery, Bombay. 

Itaty: Ufficio degli Scambi Internazionali, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio 
Emanuele, Rome. 

JAMAICA: Institute of Jamaica, Kingston. 

JAPAN: Imperial Library of Japan, Tokyo. 

JAVA, via Netherlands. 

Korea; Government General, Keijo. 

LipeRiA: Bureau of Hxchanges, Department of State, Monrovia. 

LovurRENCO MARQUEZ: Government Library, Lourengo Marquez. 

LUXEMBURG, via Germany. 

MADAGASCAR, via France. 

MaperrA, via Portugal. 

Montenrcro:* Ministére des Affaires Ntrangéres, Cetinge. 

MozaMpiIQueE, via Portugal. 

NETHERLANDS: Bureau Scientifique Central Néerlandais, Bibliothéque de YUni- 
versité, Leyden. 

New Guinea, via Netherlands. 

Nrw SourH WAtLEsS: Publie Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 

NEW ZEALAND: Dominion Museum, Wellington. 

Nicaracua: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Managua. 

NORWAY: Kongelige Norske Frederiks Universitet Bibliotheket, Christiania. 

PaNnaMA: Secretaria de Relaciones Hxteriores, Panama. 

PARAGUAY: Servicio de Canje Internacional de Publicaciones Seccién Consular 
y de Comercio, Ministerio de Relaciones Hxteriores, Asuncion. 

PrERsiA: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York City. 

Perv: Oficina de Reparto, Depésito y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, 
Ministerio de Fomento, Lima. 

PortuGaL: Servico de Permutacées Internacionaes, Bibliotheca Nacional, Lis- 
bon. 

QUEENSLAND: Bureau of Exchanges of International Publications, Chief Sec- 
retary’s Office, Brisbane. 

RoOuMANIA:* Academia Romana, Bucharest. 

Russi1a:* Commission Russe des Hchanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Im- 
périale Publique, Petrograd. 

Satvapor: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, San Salvador. 

Srerpia:* Section Administrative du Ministére des Affaires Etrangéres, Bel- 
grade. 

Stam: Department of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok. 

Soutn Austratia: Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 

Spain: Servicio del Cambio Internacional de Publicaciones, Cuerpo Facultativo 
de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arquedlogos, Madrid. 

Sumatra, via Netherlands. 

SwEDEN: Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Akademien, Stockholm. 

SwitzERLanp: Service des Hchanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Fédérale 
Centrale, Berne. 

Syria; Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York. 

TasMANIA: Secretary to the Premier, Hobart. 

TRINIDAD: Royal Victoria Institute of Trinidad and Tobago, Port-of-Spain. 

TUNIS, via France. 

TuRKEY :* American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston. 

UNION or SoutH AFrica: Government Printing Works, Pretoria, Transvaal. 

Urucuay: Oficina de Canje Internacional, Montevideo. 

VENEZUELA: Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 63 


Victor1A: Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 

WINDWARD AND LEEWARD ISLANDS: Imperial Department of Agriculture, 
Bridgetown, Barbados. 


PERSONNEL. 


With his appointment as assistant secretary of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution on December 16, 1918, Dr. Charles G. Abbot was assigned to 
general charge of the international exchanges and the library in addi- 
tion to the directorship of the Astrophysical Observatory. 

Respectfully submitted. 

C. G. ABBor, 
Assistant Secretary, 
In Charge of Library and Eechanges. 

Dr. CHartes D. Watcort, 

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 4. 


REPORT ON THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 


Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the opera- 
tions of the National Zoological Park for the fiscal year ending June 
30, 1919: 

Recognizing the increased cost of maintenance, Congress allowed 
in the sundry civil bill the sum of $115,000 for the expenses of the 
park, with an additional allotment of $200 for printing and binding. 
This was an increase of $15,000 over the appropriation for the pre- 
ceding years. By the practice of great economy in all departments a 
small amount was made available from this sum for minor perma- 
nent improvements, and some long-needed work was accomplished 
during the year. Several of the employees who were in the military 
or naval service during the war returned to their duties at the park 
near the close of the year, and there is at present no distinct short- 
age of help except in the buildings and grounds department. The 
popularity of the Zoological Park continues to increase, and the 
number of visitors admitted to the grounds greatly exceeded that of 
any previous year. An attendance of nearly 2,000,000 was recorded. 
Notwithstanding the scarcity of help during the first months of 
the year, the buildings have been kept in a fair state of repair and 
the grounds are in a very good condition. The collection has been 
kept near normal size, with even slight increase in the number of 
specimens, and with no serious gaps or empty quarters. This is due 
almost entirely to the constant and efficient care of the employees 
in the animal department, with the resulting good condition and low 
death rate among their charges. The embargo on living animals 
during the war virtually prohibited importations, and only a few 
animals were received directly from foreign ports. 


ACCESSIONS. 


Gifts—Animals to the number of 74 were accessioned during the 
year as gifts from friends of the park or were placed on indefinite 
deposit. 

Two young Sumatran elephants received from the Smithsonian 
Institution were the most important and valuable additions to the 
collection. These were purchased at a cost of $5,000 for the children 

64 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 65 


of Washington by a number of their friends and were donated to 
the institution. At the time of their arrival they were about 2 and 
24 years old and were 42 and 45 inches high. The Sumatran elephant 
had never before been exhibited in Washington. It is closely allied 
to the elephant of India, and differs from the African elephant in 
many characters, most conspicuous of which is the very small size 
of the ear. No specimen of this group of elephants has been in the 
collection since the death in March, 1917, of the old Indian elephant, 
“Dunk.” The Sumatran elephant is said to average somewhat 
smaller than the elephant from British India, but the Dutch trader 
who accompanied these young animals from Sumatra reports having 
killed one which was 10 feet high at the shoulder. The baby ele- 
phants are already great favorites with the children and are growing 
rapidly. They are known by their Malayan names of “Hitam” 
(black) and “ Kechil” (small). 

Other particularly valuable donations were a fine capybara from 
Hon. Henry D. Baker, Trinidad, British West Indies, who has pre- 
sented the park with other interesting specimens in past years; and 
a pair of Florida bears from Mrs. A. V. N. Stroop, Moore Haven, 
Fla. The capybara is an especially good specimen of this largest 
of all living rodents, and the Florida bear has ‘never before been 
shown in the collection. The bears are still young, but will apparently 
grow to a much larger size than the common American black bears, 
as they are now considerably larger than Virginia specimens of ap- 
proximately the same age, and the bears of Florida are known some- 
times to exceed in size all other forms of the black bear. 

Among the birds presented during the year the most important is 
an example of the great white heron of southern Florida, taken 
from the nest on one of the Newfound Harbor group of keys, 
Florida, May 12, 1919, by Dr. Paul Bartsch. This bird has de- 
veloped spiendidly and forms one of the unique exhibits of the bird 
department. 

The complete list of donors and gifts is as follows: 


Hon. Henry D. Baker, Trinidad, British West Indes, capybara. 
Miss Marjarie Bandelauter, Washington, D. C., alligator. 
Dr. Paul Bartsch, Washington, D. C., great white heron. 
Mr. J. EK. Boyle, Washington, D. C., horned toad. 

Mr. Morris K. Brady, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Miss Eddie Capps, Schuyler, Va., alligator. 

Mr. Frederick Chester, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mr. E. R. Claud, Washington, D. C., horned toad.’ 

Mrs. V. Cook, Savannah, Ga., alligator. 

Mr. W. R. Coon, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Miss Pauline Corson, Guinea Mills, Va., four gray foxes. 
Mr. Lee Cummins, Washington, D. C., two alligators. 
Mr. A. H. Davin, Palmyra, Va., five turtle doves. 


66 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Miss Elisabeth T. Davidson, Baltimore, Md., two grass paroquets. 

Mr. D. L. Du Pre, Washington, D. C., American barn owl. 

Mr. L, A. Ehrmantraut, Washington, D. C., chicken-guinea hybrid. 

Mr. W. H. Fairchild, Washington, D. C., red fox. 

Mr. J. F. H. Fields, Hancock, Md., banded rattlesnake. 

Mr. F. F. Gillen, Washington, D. C., three screech owls. 

Mrs. Lillie M. Glover, Washington, D. C., Isle of Pines parrot. 

Mrs. Gregory, Washington, D. C., Virginia opossum. 

Mrs. S. M. Hesey, Edinburg, Va.,; Cuban parrot. 

Mr. Charles P. Higgins, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mr. John B. Laing, Lewisburg, W. Va., black bear. 

Mr. Edward L. Latimer, Hyattsville, Md., great horned owl. 

Mr. Maynadiers, Washington, D. C., Virginia opossum. 

Mr. W. L. McAtee, Washington, D. C., rainbow snake. 

Mr. J. C. Meyer, Washington, D. C., three canary birds. 

Mr. H. D. Money, jr., Gulfport, Miss., two fox squirrels. 

Mr. James Mooney, jr., Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mrs. C. P. Moore, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mr. Joseph G. Moore, Flint Hill, Va., two woodchucks. 

Mr. Charles A. Mosier, Holmstead, Fla., moccasin snake. 

Mr. R. HE. Otterback, Washington, D. C., black snake. 

Mr. A. J. Poole, Washington, D. C., water snake. 

Mr. G. R. Putnam, Washington, D. C., horned toad. 

Mr. T. M. Quill, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mr. E. S. Schmid, Washington, D. C., spider monkey. 

Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, Washington, D. C., water snake, garter snake, snapping 
turtle, Florida terrapin, and two gopher tortoises. 

Maj. Walter L. Simpson, Washington, D. C., badger. 

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., two Sumatran elephants. 

Mr. J. F. Stowell, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mr. Blanford Straughn, Washington, D. C., chameleon. 

Mrs. A. V. N. Stroop, Moore Haven, Fla., two Florida bears. 

Mrs. Griffith E. Taylor, Berryville, Va., double yellow-head parrot. 

Mr. Albert Thorn, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Mr. Henry C. Vaden, Washington, D. C., peafowl. 

Mr. J. S. Warmbath, Washington, D. C., screech owl. 

Mrs. Sarah Wilber, Keshena, Wis., American badger. 

Mr. J. M. Willson, Kissimmee, Fla., sand-hill crane. 

Mr. H. F. Winn, Chevy Chase, D. C., peafowl. 

Mr. H. BE. Wright, Point of Rocks, Md., alligator. 

Unknown donor, fish crow. 


Births —The number of births exceeds that of any previous year 
in the history of the park. Mammals to the number of 76 were 
born, and 83 birds were hatched during the year, making a total of 
159 additions to the collection in this manner. This record includes 
only such animals-as are reared to a reasonable age, no account 
being made in these published statistics of such as live but a few 
days. The births include 2 European bears, 2 Rocky Mountain 
sheep, 1 eland, 4 Indian antelopes, 1 yak, 6 American bison, 2 lamas, 
1 Columbian black-tailed deer, 2 Manchurian deer, 2 Kashmir deer, 
2 American elk, 2 barasingha deer, 1 hog deer, 4 Japanese deer, 1 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 67 


fallow deer, 6 white-tailed deer, 6 European red deer, 1 yellow- 
haired porcupine, 4 raccoons, 6 coypus, 3 rhesus monkeys, 1 dusky 
phalanger, 1 rufous-bellied wallaby, 1 great gray kangaroo, 4 red 
kangaroos, 8 opossums, and 2 brush-tailed rock kangaroos. The 
birds hatched are of the following species: Demoiselle crane, Ameri- 
can coot, Florida cormorant, night heron, wild turkey, golden 
pheasant, peafowl, scaled quail, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, 
black duck, and wood duck. 
_. Hechanges—There were received during the year 11 mammals 
and 70 birds in exchange for surplus animals born in the park. 
The mammals were 2 prong-horned antelopes, 2 Indian water buf- 
faloes, 3 beavers, 3 spider monkeys, and 1 Burmese macaque. Many 
desirable water fowl, including coscoroba and black swans, Hutchins’s 
geese, European widgeon, European teal, garganey teal, black- 
bellied tree ducks, and spur-winged geese, as well as numerous land 
birds needed for the collection, were received through exchange. 
Species new to the collection are the black-gorgeted laughing 
thrush, crimson tanager, blue tanager, thick-billed euphonia, dia- 
mond dove, bar-shouldered dove, short-keeled toucan, and a fine 
specimen of the remarkable Goliath heron from Africa. 

Purchases.—Because of lack of funds only 38 mammals, birds, and 
reptiles were purchased during the year. A Malayan sun bear was 
obtained in San Francisco, a fallow deer buck was purchased for 
breeding, and a few small mammals were bought from time to 
time. Additions to the American waterfowl lake were 6 brants, 2 
white-fronted geese, 10 black ducks, and an immature whistling 
swan. Two Florida sandhill cranes and a pair of bronze-wing 
pigeons, with some commoner hawks and owls, also were purchased. 

Transfers —Both the Biological Survey of the Department of 
Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries, Department of Commerce, 
contributed to the collection by the transfer of material collected 
by their agents in the field. From the Biological Survey was re- 
ceived an Apache grizzly bear and a mountain lion from New Mex- 
ico, a blue goose from Missouri, and two pigmy ground rattlers and 
a water snake from Florida. The Apache grizzly, new to the col- 
lection, is one of the recently defined species of the grizzly bear 
now nearing extinction. The specimen, a young male, was cap- 
tured July 22, 1918, by T. J. McMullin and Bob Reid, 22 miles 
southeast of Taos, N. Mex., and was forwarded to the park by M. E. 
Musgrave, of the Biological Survey. It was apparently about 8 
months old when received. A few turtles from Georgia were trans- 
ferred from the Bureau of Fisheries. } 

Captured in the park.—A few birds captured in the park were 
added to the collection. 


68 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Deposited——As usual, a number of desirable exhibition speci- 
mens were accepted on temporary deposit. These included for the 
year 7 parrots of various species, 2 boa constrictors, a lion, and a 
kinkajou. Eight alligators were carried over the winter for the 
Pan American Union. 


REMOVALS. 


Surplus mammals and birds to the number of 37 were exchanged 
to other zoological collections, as follows: One European brown bear, 
1 hippopotamus, 2 red kangaroos, 1 yak, 3 Indian antelopes, 1 fallow 
deer, 2 hog deer, 1 Japanese deer, 4 barasingha deer, 4 European red 
deer, 6 gray squirrels, 2 domestic geese, and 9 peafowl. A number 
of specimens on deposit were returned to owners. 

While the death rate for the year has been comparatively small, 
there have been as usual some serious losses, especially among animals 
long in the park and of advanced age. The male Celebesian dwarf 
buffalo, or anoa (Anoa depressicornis), which has been a feature of 
the antelope house for nearly 13 years, died on July 24,1918. This 
animal came to the collection December 12, 1905, then fully adult, 
had been showing extreme age for the past two years, and his death 
was not unexpected. Two female Congo harnessed antelopes (7'ra- 
gelaphus gratus) were lost. One was purchased as a fully grown 
animal October 31, 1907, and died May 10,1919. The other, born in 
the park July 4, 1912, died February 27,1919. An old female Ameri- 
can bison, purchased May 6, 1907, died of septic metritis on April 20, 
1919. A female guanaco, received from the zoological gardens in 
Buenos Aires, December 29, 1904, died on August 22, 1918, of acute 
congestion of the lungs, after 13 years and 8 months of life in the 
park. An alpaca, also from the Buenos Aires gardens, received 
March 14, 1908, died from old age and parasitic invasion, October 11, 
1918. A wild cat (Lyn ruffus), received September 3, 1907, died 
January 22, 1919; and a Canada lynx, received September 25, 1907, 
died from septicemia September 25, 1918, exactly 11 years from the 
date of its arrival in the zoo. Other losses of importance among the 
mammals were a leopard, from pneumonia, November 18, 1918, and 
a young Brazilian tapir, born in the park February 22, 1918, which 
died under anesthetic during an operation for prolapse of the rectum 
on June 3, 1919. 

The most serious loss by death among the birds was a female 
trumpeter swan, which died of septicemia May 14, 1919, just after 
it had been successfully mated, after two years of effort, with the 
male trumpeter lent to the park by Judge R. M. Barnes, of Lacon, 
Ill. The eggs in the ovary were enlarged to the size of cherries, and 
there is every reason to believe that but for the untimely loss of this 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 69 


bird the swans would have been successfully bred. The African 
crowned hawk-eagle (Spizaétus coronatus) received from James 
Robert Spurgeon, United States Secretary of Legation, Monrovia, 
Liberia, June 24, 1901, died from avian tuberculosis, March 26, 1919, 
after 17 years and 9 months of life in the bird house. Two wander- 
ing tree ducks (Dendrocygna arcuata), received from Carl Hagen- 
beck, September 25, 1903, died, probably of old age, on September 30 
and December 16, 1918, both having thus lived over 15 years in the 
gardens. A snowy egret (gretta candidissima), received from 
Texas, June 15, 1907, died July 10, 1918, over 11 years from the date 
of its arrival. 

Post-mortem examinations were made by the pathological division 
of the Bureau of Animal Industry. The following list shows the 
results of autopsies, the cases being arranged by groups: 


CAUSES OF DEATH. 
MAMMALS. 


Marsupialia: Pneumonia, 2; tuberculosis, 1; peritonitis, 1; abscess in abdomen, 1. 

Carnivora: Pneumonia, 1; anemia, 1; septicemia, 1; abscess of jaw, 1. 

Rodentia: Pneumonia, 2; enteritis, 1; gastroenteritis, 1. 

HWdentata: Adenomata, 1. 

Primates: Tuberculosis, 1; pleurisy, 1; enteritis, 1; gastroenteritis, 1; anemia, 1; 
sarcomatous tumor, 1; accident, 1; not determined, 1. 

Artiodactyla: Pneumonia, 3; tuberculosis, 3; congestion of lungs, 1; anemia, 1; sep- 
ticemia, 2; septic metritis, 1; old age, 1; accident, 2. 

Perissodactyla: Anesthetic, during operation, 1. 


BIRDS. 


Ciconiiformes : Tuberculosis, 1; not determined, 1; no cause found, 1. 

Anseriformes: Tuberculosis, 3; enteritis, 4; ptomaine poisoning, 1; septicemia, 1; ne- 
crosis of cecum, 1; hemorrhage, 2; parasitism, 1; accident, 1; not determined, 2. 

Falconiformes: Tuberculosis, 1; aspergillosis, 1; not determined, 1. 

Galliformes: Aspergillosis, 1; enteritis, 2. 

Gruiformes: Tuberculosis, 1; enteritis, 1. 

Charadriiformes: Tuberculosis, 4; enteritis, 1; peritonitis, 1. 

Cuculiformes : Tuberculosis, 1; enteritis, 2; sarcomatosis, 1; no cause found, 1. 

Coraciiformes: Aspergillosis, 1. 

Passeriformes: Tuberculosis, 3; enteritis, 2; no cause found, 1. 


Such animals, lost by death, as were of particular scientific im- 
portance, or needed for exhibition purpeses, were transferred to the 
United States National Museum for preservation. These numbered 
15 mammals and 25 birds. 


ANIMALS IN THE COLLECTION JUNE 30, 1919. 


MAMMALS. 

MARSUPIALIA. Dusky phalanger (Trichosurus fuligi- 
MO SUE inset ee oe, 5 

Virginia opossum (Didelphis  vir- Brush-tailed rock kangaroo (Petro- 
OUNAGIN G) (a ee a 9 gale (penicillata) — 222 ee a 4 

Tasmanian deyil (Sarcophilus har- Great gray kangaroo (Macropus gi- 
TS UY a NEE fe 8 PIRSA SS Se ak 2 GOMLEMS) eee ee 2 ON ae ee 3 
Phalanger (Trichosurus vulpecula)--- 3 | Red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) ------~ 9 


12573°—21—_—-6 


70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Kangaroo Island kangaroo (Macropus 
(EAT U8) Le) hae Se eee ees eee 
Wallaroo (Macropus robustus) ——_-_---- 
Black-tailed wallaby (Macropus wala- 
CCS) gece ES Spe Ne 
Rufous-bellied 
biblerdieruyer SW. eee 
Parma wallaby (Macropus parma) _——- 
Wombat (Phascolomys mitchell) ____~ 


CARNIVORA. 


Kadiak bear (Ursus middendorffi) __-- 
Alaska Peninsula bear (Ursus gyas)-- 
Yakutat bear (Ursus dali) ——-~-—-_-___ 
Kidder’s bear (Ursus kidderi) ----_---~ 
European bear (Ursus arctos)——---~- 
Grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis) ____-__ 
Apache grizzly (Ursus apache) —~—__----~ 
Himalayan bear (Ursus thibetanus) —_ 
Black bear (Ursus americanus) —~---~ 
Kenai black bear (Ursus americanus 

DETNAUGET) oe ee NR EE 
Cinnamon bear (Ursus americanus cin- 

MUM O INU) ws he ey 
Horida bear (Ursus floridanus) —----__ 
Giacier bear (Ursus emmonsii) ~-—--~ 


Sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) —~--~ ‘ 


Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) ------- 
Polar bear (Thalarctos maritimus) ——- 
Dingo (Canis dingo) =-.-2=- === - 
Eskimo dog (Canis familiaris) ------~ 
Gray wolf (Canis nubilus)_----_--~_ 
Southern wolf (Canis floridanus) —_---- 
Woodhouse’s wolf (Canis frustror) —-_ 
Coyote (Canis latrans) _-_----______= 
Red fox (Vulpes fulva) 2 -----___-__ 
Gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) — 
Cacomistle (Bassariscus astutus) —~~--~ 
Raccoon.“( Procyon lotor)= 2. Se eee 
Gray coatimundi (Nasua narica)—---~ 
Kinkajou (Potos flavus) —--_.--_-_-~— 
Herret. (Mastelaapuroe) 2 eee 
Tayra (Teyra. barbara) 22-2 
Skunk (Mephitis nigra) ~-~-__~-~___-— 
American badger (Tasidea tavus) ~~ 
European badger (Meles meles) -—---~ 
Florida otter (Lutra canadensis vaga) — 
African civet (Viverra civetta) —-_-___ 
Genet (Genetta genetta)_—___________ 
Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) ——-—~ 
Brown hyena (Hyena brunnea) ——____ 
Striped hyena (Hyena hyena) _-_-__-__- 
African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) —— 
LON CHEMS, LEO) a ee ey ee a 
Bengal tiger (Felis tigris) -----—-_-___ 
Manchurian tiger (Felis tigris longi- 

GAAS) etee Nae ORIG EAA UUs ATID SPU SUENNA ST VOTRE SIDES 
Leopard (Felis pardus)-_-..—-__-__ 
Hast African leopard (Felis pardus 

SOAS ALT CD ES RON SO OL SUNS SIRES RUN 
VOUT! CH CUS: ORCM) ara ee re ese 
Mexican puma (Felis azteca) —_________ 
Mountain lion (Felis hippolestes) —--- 
Canada lynx (Lyn« canadensis) -______ 


eb 


wares 


OrREHENANEDE 


MBRDONRPRP REE PN WHERE NRF RNID wWNHFONEFNREREH WD bb Ld 


e bo 


lo 08 05 et 


Bay lynx) (Dynan rujffws) aa 22 Sites 
California lynx (Lynx californicus) —_~ 
Banded lynx (Lynz fasciatus) _-_______ 


PINNIPEDIA. 


California sea lion (Zalophus californi- 


RODENTIA. 


Woodchuck (Marmota monaz)—_-----_~ 
Dusky marmot (JIMarmota flaviven- 

CTD OOSCUT GY) ass ae ee ea 
Prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) —__ 
Fox squirrel (Sciwrus niger) ____-_-____ 
Albino squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) — 
American beaver (Castor canadensis) — 


Crested porcupine (Hystriz cristata)__ . 


Yellow -haired porcupine (Hrethizon 

CRUG CIVETOUIY ees She eR 
Coypu (Myocastor coypus)———------~ 
Paca \(Cuniculus paca) 2-22 ee 
Mexican agouti (Dasyprocta mezi- 


Azara’s agouti (Dasyprocta azare)——~ 
Crested agouti (Dasyprocta cristata) —— 


Viscacha (Lagostomus maximus) ———__~ 
Patagonian cavy (Dolichotis patago- 


Peruvian guinea pig (Cavia tschudii 

DOLACNOR) pio ee were a Oe SN ey 
Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus)________ 
Capybara (Hydrocherus hydrocheris) — 


LAGOMORPHA. 
Domestic rabbit (Oryctolagus cum- 
GCUNAES) SE EEE SS ES Sy 
PRIMATES. 


Gray spider monkey (Ateles geoffroyi) — 
White-throated capuchin (Cebus capu- 

CUS) BS PP RPE BOI RN BORE Th eae 
Margarita capuchin (Cebus margari- 

EOE) oS es SE ae ec ee 
Chacma (Papio porcarius) —~-——-_-_-= 
Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) — 
Mandrill (Papio sphingz) _-_-____--___-- 
Drill (Papio leucophaus) _——--=—_---= 
Moor macaque (Cynopithecus maurus) — 
Brown macaque (Macaca speciosa) __~ 
Japanese monkey (Macaca fuscata) —__ 
Burmese macaque (Macaca andama- 

NONSIS) Oe ee Se 
Pig-tailed monkey (Macaca neme- 

SET UI) ene a 
Rhesus monkey (Macaca rhesus) ~~~ 
Bonnet monkey (Macaca sinica) ______ 
Javan macaque (Macaca mordaz) —-~- 
Philippine macaque (Macaca syrichta) — 
Sooty mangabey (Cercocebus fuligi- 


Ee Ot 


me bo 


bo 


no 
Hee ORF FM WNHHHHNH He Lo 


1 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 


Green guenon (Lasiopyga callitrichus) — 
Vervet guenon (Lasiopyga pygerythra) — 
Mona (Lasiopyga mona) —__-.--------- 
Roloway guenon (Lasiopyga roloway) — 
Patas monkey (Hrythrocebus patas) ~~ 
Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) ------- 


ARTIODACTYLA, 


Wilde boat. (Sus) SCNO;@) oe = 
Wart-hog (Phacocherus ethiopicus) —_ 
Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphib- 

ius) 
Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) — 
Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) — 
Guanaco (Lama huanachus) ~----~-~- 
Llama (Lama glama) —----—-------___ 
Alpaca! (Lame pacos) 22-28 ss oe 
Vicuna (Lama vicugna) —————-~-___~_ 
Fallow deer (Dama dama) —-----~--~-~-~ 
Axis deer (Avis azis) 
Hog deer (Hyelaphus porcinus) —-__--~ 
Sambar (Rusa unicotor) ____.-------- 
Luzon deer (Rusa philippinus) 
Barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelti) _--- 
Japanese deer (Sika nippon) —~-------_ 
Red deer (Cervus elaphus) —---------- 
Kashmir deer (Cervus hanglu)—------ 
Bedford deer (Cervus wanthopygus) ~~ 
American elk (Cervus canadensis) __-- 
Virginia deer (Odocoileus virginianus) — 
Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) _____ 
Black-tailed deer (Odocoileus colum- 

OTIS) ee spat). iy sete, ee 
Prong-horned antelope (Antilocapra 

americana) 


RATIT®A, 


South African ostrich (Struthio aus- 
tralis ) 
Somaliland ostrich (Struthio molybdo- 
MTUOUIIE Sgt oe ip a ee ae a 
Rhea (Rhea americana) ~----_~----~- 
Emu (Dromiceius novehollandie) _—~--- 


CICONIIFORMES, 
American white pelican (Pelecanus 
CHIULRTOVIUUIVCTUGS \ ne a a as 
Huropean white pelican (Pelecanus 
ONGCTOLOTIUS) rece oe ae ae es oe cok 


Roseate pelican (Pelecanus roseuws) ——— 
Australian pelican (Pelecanus cons- 
RT CUCU UES) ea eae a re 
Brown pelican (Pelecanus occiden- 
AEH ISH) ) ones CA te La NS aS PLU MTSE 
Florida cormorant 
auritus floridanus) 
Great white heron 
LEAH ESS) laa leek Ole AN RE i 
Great blue heron (Ardea herodias) _-_-- 
Goliath heron (Ardea goliath) ______~- 
Snowy egret (Horetta candidissima) —_ 


(Ardea occiden- 


1 
2 
3 
1 
1 
1 


Ne 


fed et et my 
ARADNOHNADWHHEHEAN NW 


15 


Blesbok (Damatliscus albifrons) ------~ 
White-tailed gnu (Connochetes gnou) — 
Defassa water-buck (Kobus defassa) _- 
Indian antelope (Antilope cercicapra) — 
Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) _-__ 
Hast African eland (Taurotragus oryx 

CEVA STONY ee ee a a Ie 
Tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) 
Aoudad (Ammotragus lervia) ~-______ 
Rocky Mountain sheep (Ovis canaden- 


Arizona mountain sheep (Ovis cana- 

Gensisngaillarar yes foe ee 2 
Barbados sheep (Ovis aries) _-_________ 
Zebu (Bos indicus) oe ee 
Yak (Poéphagus grunniens) __________ 
American bison (Bison bison) ________ 
Indian buffalo (Bubatus bubalis) ______ 


PERISSODACTYLA, 


Brazilian tapir (Tapirus terrestris) ___ 
Mongolian horse (Hquus przewalskii) __ 
Grant’s zebra (Hquus burchelli granti) — 
Grevy’s zebra (Hquus grevyi)_-_______ 
Zebra-horse hybrid (Hquus grevyi-ca- 

DATS) NIE SEND NE 
Zebra-ass hybrid (Equus grevyi-asinus) _ 


PROBOSCIDHA. 


Abyssinian elephant (Lozodonta afri- 
COME CLUOUUS) ea ee aa ta ee oe 
Sumatran elephant (Hlephas sumatra- 
nus) 


BIRDS. 


wb e 


bo bo 


et ee 


Black-crowned night heron (Nycti- 

corax nycticorax nevius)_—________ 
Boatbill (Cochlearius cochlearius) ____ 
White stork (Ciconia ciconia) 
Black stork (Ciconia nigra) __~________ 
Straw-necked ibis (Carphibis spinicol- 

UASiy) git eee Ne RP NG UN eae AR A 
Sacred ibis (Threskiornis ethiopicus) — 
White ibis (Guara alba) _---_-_______ 
Scarlet ibis (Guara rubra)___________ 
Roseate spoonbill (Ajaia ajaja)______ 
Kuropean flamingo (Pheenicopterus 

TOSCUS) co HE TAR SE ER 4 


ANSBHRIFORMES. 


Black-necked screamer 

LUE) ek laa i sr Da Ss 
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) __-___~ 
East Indian black duck (Anas platy- 

TIVYNCOB NAT.) eal iw De 
Black duck (Anas rubripes) _--_______-_ 
Gadwall (Chaulelasmus streperus) —__-~ 
European widgeon (Mareca penelope) - 
Baldpate (Mareca americana) —------- 
Green-winged teal (Nettion caro- 

PETE C TURE) erates are ee Sa eae STEEL cA cee e 


(Chauna tor- 


wodIeeEH 


bbe eb 


Be 


72 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


European teal (Nettion crecca) ------- 
Blue-winged teal (Querquedula dis- 

COTS) ois ah ma Ne 
Garganey (Querquedula querquedula) — 
Cinnamon teal (Querquedula cyanop- 

ET) a a as 
Ruddy sheldrake (Oasarca ferruginea) - 
Pintail (Dajila acuta) --------------- 
Wood duck (Aig sponsa) —----------- 
Mandarin duck (Dendronessa galericu- 

(fei?) eS Oe ee Ss Ae eee 
Canvas-back (Marila valisineria) -_----- 
Redhead (Marila americana) --------- 
Lesser scaup duck (Marila affinis) ---- 
Ring-necked duck (Marila collaris) —_--- 
Rosy-billed pochard (Metopiana pepo- 

SULCE) Wate SB ae ee 
Snow goose (Chen hyperboreus) —----- 
Greater snow goose (Chen hyperboreus 

MUU UTS) ee ase ae as 
Blue goose (Chen cerulescens) —------ 
W-hite-fronted goose (Anser albifrons) — 
American white-fronted goose (Anser 

albifrons, gambeli) =—-——- -=-— 
Bar-headed goose (Hulabeia indicus) —— 
Canada goose (Branta canadensis) ~~~ 
Hutchins’s goose (Branta canadensis 

PAUL GTAUNSU)) ee ep ee 
Cackling goose (Branta canadensis 

ATUUTUT TAD) ee eS LS a SA) AN 
Brant (Branta bernicla glaucogastra) — 
Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) ---- 
Spur-winged goose (Plectropterus gam- 

LING CHEY IS ech at toc AL NO 
Black-bellied tree duck (Dendrocygna 

CUTUMNNTNS) 2 ees SES eS 
White-faced tree duck (Dendrocygna 

ALLEGE) eens cea LA PO oe 
Coscoroba (Coscoroba candida) ~------ 
Mute swan (Oygnus gibbus) —-------~- 
Whistling swan (Olor columbianus) ~~ 
Trumpeter swan (Olor buccinator) ~~~ 
Black swan (Chenopis atrata) -------- 


FALCONIFORMES. 


South American condor (Vuliur gry- 

DILYS) 22 et ee aE ee 
California condor (Gymnogyps califor- 

DUC UTUUS) as Sipe a Ns 9 at 
Turkey vulture (Cathartes aurea) ~~ 
Black vulture (Coragyps urubu)——---- 
King vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) ——- 
Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpen- 

ECUL TIES) ae ae AAR eae 
Griffon vulture (Gyps fulvus)---_-____ 
Cinereous yulture (Aegypius mona- 

CLL TES)) eee eee LIRR ENE ee em ee Sm aan 
Caracara (Polyborus cheriway) —----- 
Wedge-tailed eagle (Uroaétus audaz)— 
Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaétos) _____ 
Bald eagle (Haliwetus leucocephalus) — 
Alaskan bald eagle (Haliwetus leuco- 

cephalus “alascanus) S22 - ee 
Sparrow hawk (Falco sparverius)——~- 
Red-tailed hawk (Buteo borealis) _---~ 
Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainson) -- 


CR bo eH 


Li i ) 


Le Oe ow) 


= 


PDH Ee 


GALLIFORMES. 


Mexican curassow (Crag globicera)___- 
Daubenton’s curassow (Cran dauben- 
LOTA) oo ee Se ee eee ee 


Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo sil- 
MESES AS ie eee a Se ey 
Peafowl (Pavo cristatus) _._________— 
Peacock pheasant (Polyplectron bical- 
CORT TLIN Pa saa a eae ce ee ee ee 
Silver pheasant (Genneus nyctheme- 
Ua) Bah) yy eal er ca TS oa a ee Cee Wanda te 
Lady Amherst’s pheasant (Chrysolophus 
CITC CR SERED) pc ee re ea aes a ed 
Golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) — 
Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) _-_--~ 
Scaled quail (Callipepla squamata) —_—~ 
Gambel’s quail (Lophortyx gambelii) __ 
Valley quail (Lophortyr californica 
VOELECOLD) ane oe eee oe 


GRUIFORMES. 


American coot (Fulica americana) _—-—-— 
South Island weka rail (Ocydromus 

QUSEV GIS) ss Best Ai ae ON a aye eee 
Short-winged weka (Ocydromus bra- 

Chypt erusyine ohn eee oli ton 
Earl’s weka (Ocydromus earli) _-_-_-_~ 
Whooping crane (Grus americana) ____ 
Sandhill crane (Grus megvicana) __-_--~ 
White-necked crane (Grus leucauchen) — 
Indian white crane (Grus leucogera- 

MUUS SL so eS as ae ere 
Lilford’s crane (Grus lilfordi) -_------ 
Australian crane (Grus rubicunda) —-— 
Demoiselle crane (Anthropoides virgo) — 
Crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) —— 
Cariama (Cariama cristata) _-------- 


CHARADRIIFORMES, 


Great black-backed gull (Larus mari- 
NUS) perso ae eee 
Herring gull (Larus argentatus) ~---- 
Laughing gull (Larus atricilla) ------ 
Australian crested pigeon (Ocyphaps 
CophOtES) os Ss ae eee ee 
Bronze-wing pigeon (Phaps_ chalco- 
POLO TOY a oes ee EE IN ee 
Wonga-wonga pigeon (Lewcosarcia pi- 
CULG) Soe Peet 0 SR SN HE SS ot 
Red-billed pigeon (Chlorenas flaviros- 
E18) So ee ee ee 
White-winged dove (Melopelia asia- 
ETC CL) ) ra ea 
Mourning dove (Zenaidura macroura) — 
Diamond dove (Geopelia cuneata) ____- 
Zebra dove (Geopelia striata) ________ 
Bar-shouldered dove (Geopelia hume- 
WOUAS ) ee Se re 
Inca dove (Scardafella inca) ------_~ 
Blue-headed quail-dove (Starnenas cya- 
ALO COMI TUL) yas es 
Ringed turtle-dove (Streptopelia ri- 


NorPNwor 


ow 


BOHN H HORE 


Nee 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 


PSITTACIFORMBS. 


Grass paroquet (Melopsitiacus undu- 
WOUE TER) yee ee ea ee 2 
Black-tailed paroquet (Polytelis me- 
lanura) 1 
Lesser vasa parrot (Coracopsis nigra). 1 
Gray parrot (Psittacus erithacus)____ ye 
Haitian paroquet (Aratinga chioro- 


Blue-winged parrotlet (Psittacula pas- 

SY GFFOLIGT) Ve Seal) useage er padh Orn iia Al Ea 1 
Cuban parrot (Amazona leucocephaia) — 6 
Isle of Pines parrot (Amazona leuco- 


cephala palmarum) ~-----__--_~--- 1 
Yellow-shouldered parrot (Amazona 

DATOGMEWSIS)) Lo 2 eee eas) 1 
Festive parrot (Amazona festiva)__-~ 1 
Whitefronted parrot (Amazona albi- 

TPES) DO Ta ha ER 1 
Orange-winged parrot (Amazona ama- 

OO TELG Ch) eee ans sah ne ANIL IDE NS aL 
Santo Domingo parrot (Amazona ven- 

PALA SATES}) Wc ale tps oi AS) ea iris ap MgO any 2 
Yellow-headed parrot (Amazona ochro- 

CLE) TEE AIG 2) \ SG STR ll I EVP Roe ces 8 
Yellow-naped parrot (Amazgona auro- 

5 TLS NASER) ea a pil aon 2 
Double yellow-head parrot (Amazona 

MANSCLE 499.2) Vests eae Ce teens A ald tea 10 
Yellow-cheeked parrot (Amazona au- 

PAUTIUTELUDS) We ee 0 tenn ete umes Dkr alvaas 1 
Thick-billed parrot (Rhynchopsitta 

DULCYUTR UNCC!) ee ae, a SOs 2 
Red-and-blue macaw (Ara _ chlorop- 

TEE }) ecto ep ehh i lt Men ah ABRs ip Dal 2 
Red-and-blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara 

AIUD CL) ip Nh IP hoe 5 NN Sa T 
Blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara arara- 

UTD ea a neat eC ee il 
Sulphur-crested cockatoo  (Cacatoes 

PELL CITE CD) Wels ee a Na I 2 
Great red-crested cockatoo (Cacatoes 

ATU OUL CC CNISHS))-= echt xs! eens DAS Se. 1 


White cockatoo (Cacatoes alba) _-___- 2 
Leadbeater’s cockatoo (Cacatoes lead- 


” Concave-casqued hornbill (Dichoceros 

bicornis) 
Barred owl (Stri# varia) --_________ 
Sereech owl (Otus asio)___~—~-- 
Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) — 
Western horned owl (Bubo virginianus 


DULLCTCOT SR SSE h Hei onl ere 

American barn owl (Tyto perlata 

DUATUNCOUA in ae eee ee Se eee 
PASSERIFORMBDS. 


Red-billed hill-tit (Liothriz luteus) __ 
Black-gorgeted laughing-thrush (@ar- 

WALA D PEC UON ALS) ey es 
Hermit thrush (Hylocichla gutiata 

PG G6i) pose ana 
Australian gray jumper (Struthidea 

cinerea) 
Green jay (Xanthoura lwaeuosa)______ 
Australian crow (Corvus coronoides) __ 
Fish crow (Corvus assifragus)_~—____ 
European raven (Corvus coraz)_~ ____ 
Napolean weaver (Pyromelana afra) —— 
Madagascar weaver (Foudia madagas- 

COPVENSIS) isa EA oe 
Paradise widow bird (Steganura para- 

GiSCO) Rae a Se ca aes ee eran 
Cut-throat finch (Amadina fasciata) __ 
Zebra finch (Teniopygia castanotis) __ 


Black-faced Gouldian finch (Poéphila 
GOULET) is Te VI See G See 
Red-faced Gouldian finch (Poéphila 
MUN O08) Se RE ORE 
Strawberry finch (Amandava aman- 
OU G) ater esata ee tun PIS oie 


Black-headed finch (Uunia atricapitla) _ 
Nutmeg finch (Munia punctulata) ___ 
Java finch (Munia oryzivora)________ 
White Java finch (Munia oryzivora) __ 
Vera Cruz red-wing (Agelaius pheni- 

COUS. PICHON) eae at eae ee 
Crimson tanager (Ramphocelus dimidi- 

GUS yi hl all oR Eli J a eee 2 
Blue tanager (Thraupis cana) __--___ 
Thick-billed euphonia (Tanagra cras- 


EVBLEELSS- CAN i eet li Me ec 1 ESS AORHG HI) et a a 0 A ENN Se i cn 

Bare-eyed cockatoo (Cacatoes gym- Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) ___ 

TU GIVES,)) rere ame INL A MUTE TRA Mer AN A 3 | Slate-colored junco (Junco hyemalis) _ 

Roseate cockatoo (Cacatoes rosetca- White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia 

FOVAAIED) ees SEN Tl Lt HE ee Dn SU 11 albicollis) = PE a at si 

Kea (Nestor notabilis) _-._.-___- 5 | Saffron finch (Sicalis flaveola)_______ 

Canary (Serinus canarius)— ________ 

CORACIIFORMES. Green singing finch (Serinus icterus) —_ 

Huropean chaffinch (Fringilia celebs) _ 

Giant kingfisher (Dacelo gigas)______ 2 | Red-crested cardinal (Paroaria cucul- 

Short-keeled toucan (Ramphastos pis- UOT) to woe Pires ge dR Bee oer 

civorus brevicarinatus) ~_---___-___ 1! Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) ______ 
REPTILES, 

Alligator (Alligator mississipiensis)__ 28 Blue-tongued lizard (Tiliqua  scin- 

Mona Island iguana (Cyclura stejne-____ COVES) PaIeE NR se ST ck Oi ei a ak ae 

ULLEN) Paps Sees cys ee ha ee See G 1 | Chameleon (Anolis carolinensis) ____=_ 

Gila monster (Heloderma Suspectum) — 7 | Horned toad (Phrynosoma cornutum) — 


73 


Bowe 


Nee eee 


fk bes 


a ed 


74 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Rock python (Python molurus) —-_--- 3 | Ground rattler (Sistrurus miliarius) _— 1 
Diamond python (Python spilotes)____ 1 | Duncan Island tortoise (Testudo ephip- 
Anaconda (Hunectes murinus) ——~_-__-~ 2 DUN) SS as ae er eee een a ee it 
Boa constrictor (Constrictor constric- Albemarle Island tortoise (Z'estudo 
(107) pee re spent SPLINE phage Rete 6 LAGE (2 TP) NAS Ei i DO I Bt oS aR a ee if 
Rainbow snake (Abastor erythrogram- Gopher tortoise (Gopherus poylphe-_ 
MLAS) ae oe SERN TNS Se aN ik Cpt) YP ee 8 is edi te ee Eat ree i AS a ee 4 
Blacksnake (Coluber constrictor) ____~- 1 | Snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) _— 2 
Chicken snake (Hlaphe quadrivittata) _ 1 | Cooter (Pseudemys scripta) ___-----_- 1 
Water snake (Natriz sipedon) —~-___-_- 5 | Florida terrapin (Pseudemys  /flori- 
Garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) ___ 1 ETT I GD Vo ee SAN Se Po (IGS SIS i el dr it 
Moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus)_._ 1 
STATEMENT OF THE COLLECTION. 
ACCESSIONS DURING THE YHAR. 
Presented : Captured in National Zoological 
Mammals e222 seen ees 19 Park: 
IBITGS he es Se ee 25 1230s Cee eae ens a ee Se eee 10 
Reptiles (ie Se awe 30. Deposited : 
— T4 IMAI ALS oe eats See as Oe, 2 
Born and hatched in the National EGE Sp ool A ee ee eae ih 
Zoological Park: DERE) 38D CSIR cas SS a 10 
Mammals i2 22 Se ew ta 76 — 19 
SUR CS oe a 83 = 
—— 159 RotalbaccesSionss a = i wee 390 
Received in exchange: 
Mi gamma See ae ee cae 11 SUMMARY. 
BATS ack Le ge. ee ee PN 70 
— 81 | Animals on hand July 1, 1918__-__ 1, 247 
Purchased : Accessions during the year________ 390 
EVE SD Ren eB ste eas alee ened 9 
TERE GS ies eer BE a ag 29 1, 637 
MRED EES at 2 ae ss ee ees 2 Deduct loss (by exchange, death, and 
— 3§ return of animals on deposit) —__ 301 
Transferred from other Govern- 
ment departments: Animals on hand June 30, 1919_ 1, 336 
Marmimallig, soa 2 
FBIPG Sit eek a peg i ag SY 1 
Reptiles: (Shes a eee Se 6 
— 9 
Class Species. | Individuals. 
Bul Uh oabechs) weeps se eee me Rte ns Se Teas MaRe ELI pei UL ga oak eae eben ota ph Uy rt 156 528 
BITS. FS aS SS EG SS REE Re DORE I ea Seo FR Vint ble 190 737 
Reptiles essa. d=. OER a he IG | ae 23 el, 
NG 2) EPR ao a et al Ie ae Ay iA tf A RL hepa Sa, As 369 1,336 
VISITORS. 


The record for number of visitors during a single fiscal year has 
again been exceeded. The number of people admitted to the park, 
as determined by count and estimate, was 1,964,715, a daily average 
of 5,883. The greatest number in any one month was 355,651, in 
April, 1919, an average per day of 11,855. On March 23, 1919, there 
were 70,000 visitors; on Sunday, April 6, 1919, 85,000; and on Easter 
Monday, April 21, 1919, 55,359 (actual count at gates). 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 75 


The attendance by months was as follows: In 1918: July, 160,600; 
August, 116,200; September, 154,600; October, 114,500; November, 
91,400; December, 93,424. In 1919: January, 101,625; February, 
115,150; March, 242,650; April, 355,651; May, 220,700; June, 198,215. 

The record for attendance for the year ending June 30, 1918, which 
exceeded the previous record year (1916) by 436,117, was beaten by 
371,488. Following are the attendance records for the past eight 
years: 


cheapie pec oe yeh cu tnayty cag yy AD TAS OAS ae NG ae 1, 157, 110 
ee APG G23 Oi by IOUT: Mi iy redok Movant shoes 1, 106, 800 
ee Lg ee a i POO: | eOT Omi Rea ee 1, 593, 227 
127 diene ane tacit pais a OATHS |, MOM Que eis r ee ae et 1, 964, 715 


The park continues in popularity as a means of instruction to 
schools and classes, as well as a resort for out-of-doors gatherings for 
large picnic parties, where the usual woodland surroundings and 
pleasures may be supplemented by visits to the zoological collections. 
Ninety-eight such schools and classes visited the park in 1919, with a 
total of 6,169 individuals. These came not only from the District of 
Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, but from the more distant States 
of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Ohio. The Amer- 
ican Society of Mammalogists held an informal meeting with lunch- 
eon at the park on April 4, 1919, with 75 members in attendance. 


IMPROVEMENTS. 


Exterior cages for leopards, jaguars, and hyenas, on the east side 
of the north wing of the lion house, were nearly completed before the 
close of the year. The cages are seven in number, 24 feet deep, and 
74 feet long over all. The cost, including material and the labor of 
regular employees, was $3,410. This long-desired improvement adds 
greatly to the appearance of the building and to the comfort of the 
animals. 

A perforated radial brick chimney 80 feet in height above the con- 
crete foundation and 42 inches interior diameter at the top was built 
at the central heating plant to replace the old and worn-out metal 
stack, The concrete base was constructed by the park workmen and 
the chimney by contract, at a total cost of $2,647. 

A public toilet 13 by 28 feet 8 inches was constructed near the 
Connecticut Avenue entrance. Some of the materials for this work 
were purchased from the 1918 appropriation, and the labor was all 
by regular employees of the park. The cost of this structure, includ- 
ing labor, was $1,200. 

The smaller elephant house, roofs of the larger elephant house and 
restaurant building, outdoor lion and tiger cages, outdoor cages on 
east and west sides of monkey house, and other fences and inclosures 


76 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


were painted, at a total cost of $1,586. The materials, amounting 
to $475, were furnished by the park. The contracts for labor to- 
taled $1,111. 

The creek-side drive from Klingle Ford to the crossroads and 
the main road from the concrete bridge to the concourse were broken 
up and rebuilt, the creek-side drive from crossroads to the stone 
bridge was resurfaced, and roads in other parts of the park were re- 
paired and resurfaced where necessary. The cost of materials for 
road work was $1,295, and the labor, including regular park em- 
ployees and temporary men, amounted to $1,475.50. 

Other minor improvements and repairs completed during the year 
include a new fence around the nursery and gardens, concrete steps 
to replace old stone steps leading from wolf dens up to bear yard 
steps, cement stairway from Cathedral Avenue leading down into 
park under the Calvert Street Bridge, repair of walks leading in 
from Adams Mill gate, repair of bridle paths, drainage for zebra 
house and yards, paving in zebra yards, a new policeman’s box at 
Klingle gate. The old wooden ties of the fence of the large elephant 
yard were replaced by an iron fence to match the permanent sections 
already constructed. A number of large wire receptacles for rub- 
bish and 100 new park benches were provided. 


IMPORTANT NEEDS. 


Alteration of the western boundary.—By an act approved June 23, 
1918, Congress appropriated $107,200 for the purchase of certain lots 
and parcels of land between the western boundary of the National 
Zoological Park and Connecticut Avenue, from Cathedral Avenue 
to Klingle Road, this land, together with the included highways, to 
become a part of the park. The appropriation was not a continuing 
one and lapsed at the end of the following fiscal year, before pro- 
ceedings for the purchase of the land were completed. Items for the 
reappropriation of this sum and for the additional amount necessary 
to meet the figures fixed by the court in proceedings of condemnation 
were submitted to Congress in the following years, but were not 
favorably considered. Following a suggestion made by the chair- 
man of the Appropriations Committee at the hearing on the bill for 
1919, the item for the purchase of this land was revised in the esti- 
mnte for 1920 to include only a portion of the property originally 
appropriated for in 1913. The land asked for in the estimates sub- 
mitted for 1920 and, failing approval, again included in estimates 
for 1921, includes 250 feet each side of Jewett Street, fronting on 
Connecticut Avenue, and all of the land inside the unnamed road 
between Connecticut Avenue and the park, excepting one lot. This, 
with all of Jewett Street, and the included portion of the unnamed 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 77 


street, would satisfy all the important needs of the park and give a 
frontage of over 600 feet on Connecticut Avenue. One of the princi- 
pal entrances to the park will always be from Connecticut Avenue 
and the importance of a frontage on that thoroughfare at and border- 
ing the gate can not be overestimated. The necessary land can now 
be purchased for about $80,000, and should be acquired before it is 
too late. 

Alteration of the southeastern boundary—The question of the pur- 
chase of a narrow strip of land between the park and Adams Mill 
Road, from Clydesdale Place to Ontario Road, still in private owner- 
ship, is now brought forcibly to our attention because of improve- 
ments being made at that point by the District government. As this 
newly developed section of Adams Mill Road will doubtless become 
one of the most used highways connecting the park systems, and as 
the privately owned strip is within a few feet of the Adams Mill 
Road entrance to the park, the need for public ownership can not be 
questioned. The amount required is comparatively small and the 
purchase of the land should not long be delayed, as the bordering 
road is soon to be opened, and the ownership of the narrow strip by 
the Government and its incorporation within the park is of very 
great interest to the public. 

Restaurant—One of the most urgent needs of the park is a suitable 
restaurant. The present refreshment stand is entirely inadequate and 
is in a very bad state of repair. On any of the days of reasonably 
large attendance the public can be only poorly served and the facili- 
ties of the stand are overtaxed. It is believed that a suitable building, 
on the present site, 50 by 100 feet in size, and of two floors, one open- 
ing onto the lower slope to the west, would meet the requirements. 
Such a building, properly equipped and under first-class manage- 
ment, would be greatly appreciated by the constantly increasing num- 
ber of visitors to the park. 

Grading banks and filling ravines—The work of further cutting 
away the irregular hill in the center of the western part of the park 
and the filling in of a near-by ravine, commenced three years ago but 
discontinued for lack of funds, should be completed as soon as prac- 
ticable. Level spaces for yards and inclosures are very much needed, 
and the work as left makes an unsightly and unfinished looking 
place in one of the most conspicuous points in the park, bordering on 
the ‘main road. Completion of the work will level nearly 70,000 
square feet of ground which is now of little use, make available a 
further 25,000 square feet of ground at the ravine, and eliminate a 
dangerous curve in the automobile road. 

Purchase of animals ——A sufficient sum for the purchase and trans- 
portation of animals has never been available and is greatly to be 


78 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


desired, so that the park may take advantage from time to time of 
opportunities to obtain rare and conspicuous animals not before 
exhibited. 

Aviary building.—The need of a new house for the exhibition of 
birds continues to become more urgent from year to year. The old 
building is rapidly becoming unfit for use and the public aisles are 
entirely too narrow for the crowds of people who now visit the park. 

The cost of maintenance during the past year has reached a sum 
greater than ever before. Owing to the increased cost of almost every 
item, the amount required for food for animals was $33,149, and 
repairs and new improvements are similarly expensive. It is urgent, 
therefore, if there is to be any expenditure for improvements or for 
necessary repairs that an increase be made in the general appropria- 
tion for the expenses of the park. 

Respectfully submitted. 

N. Houuister, Superintendent. 

Dr. Cartes D. Watcort, 

Secretary Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, D. C. 


APPENDIX 5. 


REPORT ON THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 


Sm: The Astrophysical Observatory was conducted under the fol- 
lowing passage of the sundry civil act approved July 1, 1918: 

Astrophysical Observatory: For maintenance of Astrophysical Observatory, 
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including assistants, pur- 
chase of necessary books and periodicals, apparatus, making necessary obser- 
vations in high altitudes, repairs and alterations of buildings, and miscel- 
laneous expenses, $13,000. 

The observatory occupies a number of frame structures within an 
inclosure of about 16,000 square feet south of the Smithsonian ad- 
ministration building at Washington, and also a cement observing 
station and frame cottage for observers on a plot of 10,000 square 
feet leased from the Carnegie Solar Observatory, on Mount Wilson, 
Calif. 

The present value of the buildings and equipment is estimated at 
$50,000. This estimate contemplates the cost required to replace the 
outfit for the purpose of the investigations. 


WORK OF THE YEAR. 


At Washington.—As usual, the computation of the results of solar 
constant observations made at Mount Wilson, Calif., has gone on 
steadily at Washington, except as interrupted by the furlough of 
the computer, Miss Graves, for work in France, as mentioned under 
the subheading “ Personnel.” After the services of other computers 
had been obtained the work went on rapidly and is now nearly up 
to date. 

The preparation of Volume IV of the Annals of the Astrophysical 
Observatory, including results of measurements from the year 1913, 
has been occupying the attention of the director to a very great 
extent since February. 

In consideration of the fact that the total eclipse of the sun of 
May 29, 1919, was visible in La Paz, Bolivia, which is not very far 
from the Smithsonian solar-constant observing station in Calama, 
Chile, and in further consideration of the fact that the Argentine 
Government is using the daily telegraphic reports of the solar obser- 
vations at Calama for forecasting purposes; and, further, that cer- 
tain conditions had arisen at Calama which would seem to require 

79 


80 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


the personal investigation of the writer, it appeared necessary to 
make an expedition to South America to attend to these several 
matters. The preparation for the eclipse work occupied some time 
of the director and of the instrument maker. 

Several investigations relating to the war, a brief note of which 
was mentioned in last year’s report, were continued during the fiscal 
year. 

The painstaking and valuable work which Mr. Fowle has been 
doing on the revision of the Smithsonian Physical Tables should re- 
ceive some notice, although this work is being done by him outside 
of his regular hours of service for the observatory. This book has 
passed through a number of editions under his editorship and has 
attained an enviable reputation in this country and abroad for the 
accuracy and fullness of its contents. The new edition, which is now 
in press, has received unusual attention on his part, and very valu- 
able cooperation from the various scientific departments of the 
Government and of outside individuals in colleges and industrial 
corporations and elsewhere, and will be a great advance over any 
of the former editions. 

In connection with work of the Observatory, we have long wished 
to determine the solar constant of radiation by a method which 
does not involve the assumption that the transparency of the atmos- 
phere is constant over the two or three hours required for the deter- 
mination of it by the usual spectrobolometric method. We hoped 
that, seeing that the sky is brighter when the transparency is less, 
an observation by the pyranometer, or some other more suitable 
instrument, of the brightness of the sky in the neighborhood of the 
sun, combined. with the usual measurements of the pyrheliometer 
and perhaps of the spectrobolometer, but only at one period of time, 
might be sufficient to determine the solar constant by a satisfactory 
empirical process based upon spectrobolometric investigations of 
former years. In the hope of getting an instrument more satisfac- 
tory than the pyranometer for this special work, a new design com- 
prising essentially two disks, one of which is shined upon through 
a graduated aperture by the sun and the other of which is exposed 
to the small region of sky desired and both connected by thermo- 
electric junction so as to enable equality of temperature of the two 
disks to be adjusted, was devised and partly constructed at Wash- 
ington. It was sent in a letter to Calama, Chile, and was finished 
by the director during his visit in Chile and is now in satisfactory 
operation, although it has not yet supplanted the pyranometer for 
the purpose in question. 

Another problem which requires a new kind of apparatus is the 
measurement of nocturnal radiation such as the earth sends out to 
space. This investigation is exceptionally difficult, for it involves a 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 81 


range of wave length from 5 microns to 50 microns. There is no 
surface either of blackened metal or other substance which is fully 
absorbing to the rays throughout this whole extent, and further- 
more there is no optical medium known by means of which the prop- 
erties of the rays beyond about 17 microns, where rock salt ceases to 
be transparent, may be investigated. For the purpose of determin- 
ing nocturnal radiation it seems absolutely indispensable that there 
should be devised an instrument based upon the principle of the 
perfect radiator or “absolutely black body.” ‘This is a very difficult 
thing because not only does the instrument have to be exposed to 
the full hemisphere of 180° of solid angle, but also the radiation to 
be observed is small in amount, little more than the tenth part of 
the radiation of the sun. Seeing that the “black body,” so called, 
requires to be a hollow chamber, large with respect to the aperture 
through which the rays enter, the rise of temperature of its walls 
which must be measured is extremely small. After much consulta- 
tion, Mr. Aldrich and the director decided upon a design of a new 
instrument for this purpose. This was constructed in the spring of 
1919, and is now in use on Mount Wilson. Whether it will prove to 
be satisfactory or not remains a question. 

In order to investigate the rays beyond the wave length where 
rock salt becomes opaque a great many measurements have been 
made by Mr. Aldrich, as mentioned in the last report, to attempt 
to find some substance transmissible to such rays. The best sub- 
stance found appeared to be potassium iodide. It usually occurs 
as crystals no larger than a buckshot. Accordingly, in order to 
make any satisfactory progress it was necessary to procure larger 
crystals, preferably large enough to make a prism of five or more 
centimeters on an edge, but at least so large that such a prism 
could be built up by cementing parts of it together. Experiments 
had been made at the General Electric Co. for producing large 
crystals needed in war operations, and they very kindly undertook 
to try to grow potassium iodide crystals also. A number of crystals, 
very satisfactorily clear, have been produced by them as large as 
2 centimeters on each edge, and from a sufficient number of these the 
prism required for going on with this long wave length work may 
probably be formed. 

Mr, Aldrich spent a long time on the development and testing 
of an apparatus for determining the constant of the fourth power 
radiation formula ordinarily called o. This is a very difficult 
research. The quantity is already certainly known within 5 per 
cent and many physicists would believe even closer than this. Many 
researches have been made upon it and in order to do a piece of 
work worth while it is necessary to show that it is certainly accurate 
to 1 per cent. After many experiments it was found that this 


82 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


degree of certainty could not be secured with the apparatus which 
Mr. Aldrich and the director had designed and which Mr. Kramer, 
the instrument maker, had constructed, and so the work was given 
over for a time. 

At Mount Wilson—Mr. Aldrich continued the observations of the 
solar constant of radiation until the middle of October, 1918, and 
returned to continue them early in June, 1919. In September of 
1918 he made a very interesting observation in cooperation with the 
Army Balloon School at Arcadia at the foot of Mount Wilson. It 
consisted in arranging a pyranometer to be hung below the basket 
of a captive balloon, which could be raised above the level of the 
great horizontal layer of fog which often covers the San Gabriel 
and other valleys in the neighborhood of Los Angeles in a sheet 
many miles in extent. On this occasion the layer of fog extended 
from 1,000 feet of altitude to 2,500 feet. The balloon was raised to 
about 200 feet above the layer. An officer of the balloon school 
exposed the apparatus under the balloon to the radiation from the 
sheet of fog, while Mr. Aldrich, on the ground, observed the deflec- 
tions of the galvanometer. The galvanometer was connected to the 
pyranometer by a pair of wires about a half mile long. Simul- 
taneously observations were made on Mount Wilson with the pyrheli- 
ometer to determine the exact character of the day, and on other days 
of similar character Mr. Aldrich exposed the pyranometer to the 
radiation of the sun and sky combined. Thus knowing the radiation 
reflected from the sheet of fog, and knowing the radiation on a similar 
day coming down from the sun and sky, he was able to determine 
the reflecting power of a great layer of fog. This observation is 
very useful for the study of the relations of the temperature of the 
earth to radiation. The result of the experiments, which were con- 
tinued for several hours without interruption, was very satisfactory. 
The final value for the reflecting power of a great horizontal sheet 
of fog was 78 per cent. 

The weather on Mount Wilson, in the autumn of 1918, was un- 
commonly poor for the solar constant work, as rain fell frequently 
and a great many clouds came up. Altogether it was the most 
unfavorable weather which has been experienced in any observing 
season there since it was occupied for solar constant purposes. 


SOUTH AMERICAN EXPEDITION. 


Several considerations led to the decision to make a small expedi- 
tion to South America in the spring of 1919. The Institution had 
equipped an observatory at Calama, Chile, to measure the solar con- 
stant of radiation. The Argentine meteorological service, through 
its chief forecaster, Mr. Clayton, had been determining the effects of 
the variation of the sun on the temperature and other weather condi- 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 83 


tions of the earth, and had been so much impressed by the value of 
the solar variation observations for forecasting purposes that they 
had arranged to receive daily telegraphic reports of the values ob- 
tained at Calama, Chile. The director of the observatory at Calama, 
Mr. Moore, had conceived a feeling that the sky conditions were not 
as favorable as perhaps might be secured in other parts of South 
America or elsewhere and feared that it was unwise for the Institu- 
tion to continue to conduct the operations there. On all of these 
accounts it seemed necessary for Dr. Abbot to go to South America 
and deal with these several matters. 

In accordance with the sundry civil act, which failed of passage on 
March 4, 1919, but was approved July 19, 1919, the following authori- 
zation was secured : 

The unexpended balance of the appropriation ‘ For observation of the total 
eclipse of the sun of June 8, 1918, and so forth,” is reappropriated and made 
available for observation of the total eclipse of the sun of May 28, 1919, visible 
in Bolivia. 

The two 11-foot focus 3-inch cameras employed by the Smithsonian 
observers at Wadesboro, N. C., in 1900, and again by Mr. Aldrich in 
1918, were equipped with a collapsible tube and other mechanism, 
so that they could be speedily arranged with equatorial clock-driven 
motion to photograph an eclipse in South America. Mr. Moore, at 
Calama, was instructed to arrange to join Dr. Abbot with the pyranom- 
eter employed there, so as to observe the degree of darkening of the 
sky and sun as the eclipse progressed. Arrived at Calama, the appa- 
ratus was repacked for use in the field, and Messrs. Moore and Abbot 
proceeded to La Paz, Bolivia, where, owing to the kindness shown 
by Mr. Babbage, of the railroad, arrangements were made to observe 
close to the railroad station at El] Alto, situated about 1,500 feet above 
La Paz, at an altitude of about 14,000 feet above sea level. The day 
of the eclipse, May 29, proved very favorable. The sky was entirely 
cloudless in the neighborhood of the sun for several hours. Mr. 
Moore had observed during the day before and during the night, and 
continued his observations each minute throughout the totality and 
the succeeding partial phase up until about two hours after sunrise. 
Dr. Abbot had set up and adjusted the photographic telescope with 
Mr. Moore’s aid, and except for one defect it operated perfectly. 
This was that since the eclipse took place so very early in the morn- 
ing, only 20 minutes after sunrise, the rate of motion of the sun 
above the horizon was not uniform with that which would occur in 
the middle of the day, owing to refraction. The apparatus had only 
been set up the day before, so that there was not time to work out 
this matter to know exactly how to rate the clock at the moment of 
eclipse. Preliminary observations of May 28 had indicated that the 
clockwork ran a little too slow. During the day it was speeded up 


84 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


a little, but on the day of the eclipse it proved to be a trifle too fast, 
so that the moon appears to be elliptical rather than perfectly round, 
as it should have been, except for the slight motion of the moon rela- 
tive to the sun during the eclipse. However, this defect is not very 
noticeable, and excellent photographs were obtained with both lenses, 
but particularly with the one which was exposed 1 minute and 30 
seconds rather than the other, which was exposed 22 minutes. 

The phenomenon was uncommonly grand, far more so than appears 
in the photograph. The sun had risen over a snow-capped 
mountain, about 20,000 feet high. It rose over half eclipsed, with 
the crescent horns pointing upward from the horizon equally. In 
20 minutes totality occurred, and there shot out over 20 fine sharp 
coronal rays, greatest elongated along the equatorial zone, but also 
visible to great distances from the poles. At the lower limb there 
was a very large flaming red prominence, which at that time rose 
to perhaps a quarter of the solar radius, and had a very long side 
extension, after the manner of a hook. The same prominence was 
observed by spectroscopic methods in the United States, at the great 
observatories, and was one of the finest prominences. ever photo- 
graphed. It is very interesting and fortunate that the early history 
of this prominence was enriched by the photograph made at La Paz 
so very early in the morning. 

Taking the whole phenomenon together, the snow-covered moun- 

tain, the brilliant sky at that great altitude of 14,000 feet, the very 
numerous and long coronal streamers, and the enormous crimson 
prominence casting its glow over all, the spectacle was truly glorious, 
and by far the most impressive of any of the eclipses which have been 
seen by the writer. It was reported that the Bolivian natives lighted 
many fires and supplicated the sun to return, after old Inca tradi- 
tions. 
Visit to Argentina.—Immediately after the eclipse Messrs. Moore 
and Abbot proceeded to La Quiaca in Argentina for the purpose of 
having a conference there with the director and forecaster of the 
Argentine meteorological service. Mr. Clayton, the official fore- 
caster, submitted for their inspection results he had obtained during 
several years in the comparison of the weather of Argentina with 
the variations of solar radiation reported by the Smithsonian observ- 
ers at Mount Wilson, Calif., and Calama, Chile, and the results ob- 
tained by using the measurements of Calama for the forecasting of 
the weather in Argentina. 

Mr. Clayton says: 

For nearly a year numerical and graphical analyses have been made of the 
solar variations and of the variations of temperature at 20 selected stations well 


distributed over Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. These analyses show that each 
variation in solar radiation has been followed by similar variations of tem- 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 85 


perature in South America, with a few exceptions that may easily have resulted 
from errors in the measurements of solar radiation. At Buenos Aires the ratio 
of temperature change to solar change at the time of greatest solar activity 
was found from the averages of several years to be 1.4 C. for each change of 
1 per cent in solar radiation. Since the extreme solar values range about 6 per 
cent on either side of the mean, there might result departures from the normal 
at Buenos Aires from this cause of about 8.5 C. The extreme departure from 
the normal observed at Buenos Aires during the last 13 years has been 11.5 C. 
The results of these researches have led me to believe that the existing abnor- 
mal changes which we call weather have their origin chiefly, if not entirely, 
in the variation of solar radiation. 

Naturally, these results, which are supported by an enormous 
amount of careful and conscientious computation on the part of the 
forecasting division of the Argentine meteorological service, are of 
extreme interest. They point to the great desirability of equipping 
in different cloudless regions of the world several observatories de- 
signed for the measurement of the solar constant of radiation. The 
chief of the Argentine weather service, Mr. Wiggin, desires very 
much to take over the South American station of the Smithsonian 
Institution, to be maintained by the Argentine meteorological serv- 
ice. ‘Tentative arrangements were entered into between Dr. Abbot 
and Mr. Wiggin for this purpose, which, however, require the further 
appreval of the Argentine Government to become effective. If suit- 
able arrangements for the transfer can be made, it is hoped to employ 
the funds thereby set loose for the establishment by the Smithsonian 
Institution of a solar station in Egypt. 

From Argentina, Messrs. Moore and Abbot returned immediately 
to Calama. 

Measurements of the Solar Constant of Radiation at Calama, 
Chile—When Dr. Abbot reached Calama he found that Messrs. 
Moore and Abbot had prepared data giving the pyrheliometry, the 
transparency of the atmosphere for nearly 40 wave lengths, the func- 
tion p/psc, and pyranometer values representing the intensity of the 
radiation of the sky in a zone 15° wide surrounding the sun. All 
these values were tabulated with solar constant values for 60 days 
of observation and for each day at periods when the air masses were 
2 and 3, respectively. 

We have felt very keenly the desirability of devising some method 
of determining the solar constant of radiation which would be inde- 
pendent of changes in the transparency of the atmosphere during 
the period of observation. It had been hoped that this might be 
done in some simple way by the aid of the pyranometer, that instru- 
ment which we devised several years ago for the purpose of measur- 
ing the brightness of the sky. It is well known that when the sky 
becomes more hazy the direct beam of the sun is reduced in intensity, 
but the scattered light of the sky at the same time is increased. <Ac- 

12573°—21——7 


86 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


cordingly, it would seem that a pyranometer measurement of the 
brightness of a limited area of the sky near the sun would furnish 
an index of the state of the transparency of the atmosphere at the 
moment of observation, and this combined with the usual observa- 
tions of the solar intensity at the earth’s surface by the pyrheliome- 
ter, and combined further with the determination of the quantity of 
the aqueous vapor between the observer and sun (which is indicated 
by the state of the great infra-red absorption bands, p and 9) might 
give the means of estimating the solar radiation outside the atmos- 
phere from observations made at a single instant of time. 

With the various data mentioned above as a basis, the writer en- 
deavored to find some method of determining the solar constant of 
radiation without the necessity of treating the several wave lengths 
of radiation separately, but after almost a week spent in working 
over the data, trying to combine them along these lines, the effort had 
to be abandoned. Mr. Moore had, however, suggested that if we 
knew the coefficient of atmospheric transmission for all of the indi- 
vidual wave lengths on a given day and had observed with the 
spectrobolometer and pyrheliometer at air mass 2 or at air mass 3, 
we could determine the solar constant from these data at once. All 
simple means having failed to give a satisfactory method, Mr. 
Moore’s suggestion was acted upon, and it was found possible, by 
noting the value of the function p/psc and the intensity of the sky 
light in the neighborhood of the sun, to determine at once the trans- 
mission coeflicients for all wave lengths. This we do by means of 
plots in which the data for the 60 days mentioned are employed. 
These data were used in the following manner: 

Taking the value obtained at air mass 2 by the pyranometer for the 
limited area of sky around the sun, dividing it by the value of e/psc 
at the corresponding time, we obtain a function which we may call 
“F.” Plotting values of “ F” as abscisse against values of the trans- 
mission coefficients for each measured wave length as ordinates, we 
obtain about 40 plots. These for the infra-red region of the spectrum 
are nearly straight lines but they become more and more convex 
toward the axes of coordinates for the rays of shorter wave lengths. 
In the 60 days which were available for the investigations the func- 
tion “F'” ranged through values eS from 100 to 900 of a cer- 
tain scale, while the function “a”—that is, the transmission coef_i- 
cient—ranged only through a very few per cent and for a large por- 
tion of the spectrum, including the infra-red region, hardly through 
more than 1 or 2 per cent. Accordingly great error is allowable in the 
function “ F” without greatly affecting the accuracy of the inference 
as to the value of the function “a.” In short, by means of the func- 
tion “F'” we are able to determine the function “a” for all wave 
lengths with highly satisfactory accuracy from observations at a 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 87 


single point of time, so that changes of the atmospheric transparency 
during the period of observation are avoided. 

This new method will hereafter be employed by the Smithsonian 
observers at Calama in combination with the old, not only for air 
mass 2, but for air mass 3, and they will check one against the other 
frequently for a considerable period of time until we are abundantly 
satisfied of the accuracy of the new method of observation. Hith- 
erto the new method has enabled us to save at Calama a number of 
days of observation which, owing to the obvious changes in trans- 
parency of the atmosphere, due to formation or disappearance of 
clouds, would otherwise have been lost. 

So far as we have as yet been able to compare the results by the 
old and the new methods, they are on the average closely identical. 
For instance, on July 1 three values of the solar constant were com- 
puted: (1) By the old process; (2) from observation at air mass 2; 
(3) from observations at air mass 8. The results obtained were as 
follows: 1.948, 1.940, 1.955, all agreeing within less than 1 per cent, 
and the mean of the results by the new process agreeing identically 
with the result by the old. 

The new process requires but two or three hours of work, where 
the old required about 15, so that if it continues to appear as satis- 
factory as now a very great gain in labor will result from it. Not 
only is this so, but a still greater gain we think will come in accu- 
racy, for we have now eliminated the fruitful source of error, de- 
pending on the variability of the atmospheric transparency during 
the observations. 

The new method of determining the solar constant of radiation 1s 
not applicable to other stations than Calama without a new series 
of contemporaneous solar constant determinations by the old method 
and pyranometer observations at air mass 2 and air mass 3 to use 
with them. We have not at present available the necessary pyra- 
nometer observations at Mount Wilson, but we shall undertake to 
obtain them at the earliest practicable moment, and hereafter it is 
probable that the new method of determination will be employed 
there as well as in South America. 

On the whole, the expedition to South America was unexpectedly 
fruitful. First, satisfactory observations were made of the eclipse, 
including both photographic observations of the eclipse phenomenon 
and pyranometer observations of the brightness of the sky during 
its progress. Second, a very interesting conference was held with 
the chief and chief forecaster of the Argentine meteorological serv- 
ice, in which they explained their investigations of the application 
of solar radiation measurements to weather forecasts and indicated 
their high sense of the value of solar radiation work for weather 


88 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


forecasting. Third, investigations at Calama based upon the obser- 
vations there indicated a new empirical method of determining the 
solar constant of radiation, which appears to be equally as accurate 
as the old and to have the great advantages: (1) That it avoids the 
assumption of uniformity of atmospheric transparency during the 
several hours formerly required for observing, and (2) that it di- 
minishes the time required for computing the result from about 15 
hours to about 3 hours. 


PERSONNEL. 


Miss Florence A. Graves, computer, was placed on furlough be- 
ginning September 5, 1918, in order that she might take up work in 
connection with the Red Cross operations in France. 

Miss Gladys L. Thurlby reported as assistant computer on Decem- 
ber 2, 1918, and Miss Inez A. Ensign reported as computer on Feb- 
ruary 1, 1919. 

SUMMARY. 


At Washington, outside of the usual reductions of observations and 
various pieces of experimental investigation, some connected with 
the war, others with the study of radiation, but for which, for one 
reason or another, no definite result can at present be reported, 
progress has been made with the preparation of a new optical me- 
dium, potassium iodide, for the investigation of the rays beyond 
where rock salt is transmissible, and a new instrument based upon the 
principle of the perfect radiator or “absolutely black body” has been 
prepared and is undergoing test for the purpose of measuring noc- 
turnal radiation such as the earth sends out to space. 

At Mount Wilson the measurements of the solar constant of radia- 
tion have been continued, and a very neat and excellent piece of 
work has been done by Mr. Aldrich, in cooperation with the Army 
Balloon Schcol at Arcadia, on the measurement of the reflection of 
sun and sky radiation from great sheets of clouds, which lead to the 
result that a fully clouded earth would reflect to space 78. per cent of 
the radiation of the sun falling upon it. 

In South America, a successful expedition by Dr. Abbot observed 
the total eclipse of the sun on May 29 at La Paz, Bolivia. .Good 
photographs of the phenomenon and also pyranometric observations 
by Mr. A. F. Moore of the brightness of the sky were obtained dur- 
ing the progress of the eclipse. A conference which is likely to prove 
of great future value was held by Dr. Abbot with the chief and chief 
forecaster of the Argentine meteorological service with reference to 
the employment of solar radiation measurements for weather fore- 
casting. At Calama, Chile, Dr. Abbot, in cooperation with the 
Smithsonian observers there, Messrs. Moore and Abbot, devised a 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 89 


new method of reducing solar radiation observations so as to deter- 
mine the solar constant of radiation with at least equal precision to 
that obtained by the older method, and the advantages (1) that the 
new method is independent of the variability of atmospheric trans- 
parency, and (2), that it requires only about one-fifth as much time 
as the old. 

Respectfully submitted. 

C. G. Agport, 
Director, Astrophysical Observatory. 
Dr. C. D. Watcort, 
Secretary, Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 6. 


REPORT ON THE LIBRARY. 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 
ties of the library of the Smithsonian Institution during the fiscal 
year ended June 30, 1919: 

The receipts of publications during the year numbered 24,670 
packages. Of these, 23,517 were received by mail and 1,153 through 
the international exchanges. Five hundred and sixty-one volumes 
were completed and 11,443 periodicals were entered. 


SMITHSONIAN LIBRARY. 


Main library—Publications for the Smithsonian Main Library, 
after entry on the records, are forwarded to the Library of Congress 
for the Smithsonian deposit. The accession numbers for the year 
extended from 529,925 to 532,002. The accessions included 1,883 
volumes, 242 parts of volumes, 348 pamphlets, and 87 charts. 

The cataloguing covered 2,490 volumes and 85 charts; 1,621 vol- 
umes were tfecatalogued; 4,909 cards were typewritten, and 895 
printed cards from the Library of Congress for publications de- 
posited by the institution were filed in the catalogue; 5,721 public 
documents were presented to the Library of Congress in accordance 
with the established practice. 

The securing of publications in exchange for Smithsonian publica- 
tions was carried on under war conditions with results that fully 
warranted the effort, and the completion of sets in the Smithsonian 
deposit of the Library of Congress has been continued, with the 
following results: 


Number of want cards received from Library of Congress: 


Biron; (Smt Somi an ev USO ee es a ee 86 
POM LE SELOGLCAL. Diy SLO re 2 Ee a ae An ee ee 129 
EM rona(Ovder: DP rvis ime eka Neh ree pe AS I a ape a 14 
229 

Number of publications secured for Library of Congress: 
Volume. Parts, 
Hor Smithsonian "Division sees Se se ee oe ee ee ee 94 381 
MOL Beri OCCA: DE VES Ta See aaa tan RS te 6 145 
Wor: Order-Division 262) 20a Se SL EAL Se Ra Ste gS at ee 32 i 
132 527 


Number of sets completed, 61. 
90 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9] 


Office reference library.—The accessions for the office library, which 
includes the Astrophysical Observatory and the National Zoological 
Park, amounted to 639 publications, distributed as follows: Office 
library, 358 volumes and 20 pamphlets; Astrophysical Observatory, 
89 volumes, 11 parts, 18 pamphlets; National Zoological Park, 140 
volumes. and 3 pamphlets. There was a circulation of 146 volumes. 

Aeronautical collection—Continued interest has been manifested 
in the institution’s collection of aeronautical publications, which has 
been of special value to aeronautical-research workers in the Army, 
the Navy, and scientific institutions. Seventy-eight titles have been 
added during the year. The Bibliography cf Aeronautics, com- 
pleted last year, is being printed by the National Advisory Commit- 
tee for Aeronautics, and will be ready for distribution shortly. 

Reading room.—No new titles of particular interest have been 
added to the reading room during the year. In the interest of war- 
time economy on the part of the publishers, several popular maga- 
zines were not received in exchange. The number of magazines 
loaned during the year was 3,140. 

Employees’ ibrary—The number of loans in the employees’ library 
was 832. The collection has been recatalogued, classified, and rear- 
ranged on the shelves. The volumes in the stacks are being rear- 
ranged, so that the magazines in greatest demand will be rendered 
more accessible. 

Art room.—The collection in the art room, including the pieces of 
statuary as well as the books, have been carefully gone over during 
the year, and those that could not be considered as relating to the 
‘fine arts were sent elsewhere in order to make room for material 
which should be placed here. The large cases were remodeled in 
order to take care of the large portfolios of prints, especially those 
of the Marsh collection, and other books which should be under cover. 
The whole contents of this room is rearranged, catalogued, classified, 
and put in thorough order. 

De Peyster collection—Author cards for 1,722 titles of books in 
the De Peyster collection have been made, and the volumes on French 
history, numbering 869 titles, have been arranged on the shelves and 
rendered accessible. 


NATIONAL MUSEUM LIBRARY. 


The loans made by the Museum hbrary during the year were 13,913, 
an increase over last year of 2,676. There were catalogued 1,048 
volumes, 3,229 pamphlets; 62 volumes and 115 pamphlets were re- 
catalogued; 1,322 volumes were sent to the Government bindery and 
710 returned. 

The most important acquisition was a set of catalogues of the 
J. Pierpont Morgan art collection, presented by J. Pierpont Morgan, 


92 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


jr. The set numbers 29 volumes, many of them privately printed in 
numbered editions. Acknowledgment is due the University of Michi- 
gan for the gift of the 12 volumes published of the Humanistic Series. 

The accessions were further increased by transfers from the 
Hygienic Laboratory, and contributions from Mr. B. H. Swales, the 
estate of Dr. Richard Rathbun, Dr. C. D. Walcott, Mr. William 
Schaus, Dr. O. P. Hay, Dr. C. W. Richmond, Dr. W. H. Dall, Dr. 
Mary J. Rathbun, Mr. A. H. Clark, Mr. W. R. Maxon, and others. 

There were accessioned during the year 2,172 volumes, 2,585 pam- 
phlets, 29 parts of volumes. The number of books in the library 
now is 141,794, consisting of 54,685 volumes and 87,109 pamphlets and 
unbound papers. 

Technological series Additions to the technological library num- 
ber 846 volumes, 4,096 parts of volumes, and 750 pamphlets. Current 
periodicals entered and shelved number 56 volumes and 3,091 parts 
of volumes. The back file of periodicals in the stacks have been 
examined and recorded from earliest issued to date. Entry was made 
for 4,249 volumes and 6,172 parts of volumes not entered before in 
the periodical record. The record of all periodicals is now complete 
and will be kept up to date for reference and consultation; 885 cards 
were added to the catalogue, 362 being for new material and the 
remainder of class 500. 

In the scientific depository catalogue 10,230 cards were received, 
arranged, and filed. Of these 3,032 were main author cards, subject 
headings and titles being added for 7,198 additional cards in accord- 
ance with the plan of a dictionary catalogue. 

The books and periodicals loaned during the year number 121 
volumes, 21 pamphlets, and 104 periodicals or parts of volumes, 
making a total circulation of 245. 

Sectional library, Division of Plants——The revision of the books, 
serials, and periodicals in the Division of Plants has been satisfac- 
torily completed. A card catalogue has been made of all of the 
books in the sectional library, numbering 896 titles, or 1,308 volumes. 
A periodical card record has been made for the recording of all 
volumes and parts of volumes now in the section, and current num- 
bers are to be entered as received. The total number of publications 
thus recorded is 781 volumes and 153 parts of volumes. All com- 
pleted volumes of unbound periodicals, numbering 38, have been 
collated and sent to the bindery. 

In the course of revision, 104 volumes were transferred from the 
main library to the sectional library, inasmuch as they proved to be 
of special value to the division, and 64 volumes of lesser direct bear- 
ing on the division’s work were transferred to the stacks of the main 
library; 510 volumes of the recent Biltmore acquisition were re- 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 93 


bound or repaired and placed on the shelves either in the sectional 
library or in the main library stack rooms. 

The entire collections have been gathered together a shelved in 
alphabetical order in the old regents’ room, with the exception of a 
small number of books kept in adjoining offices, where they are 
especially needed. A card catalogue case has been ordered and will 
be placed in the library room, to contain not only the catalogue of 
the sectional library of the Division of Plants but also a duplicate 
card catalogue which has been prepared of all books and periodicals 
of the main Museum library on the subject of botany. By collecting 
these and shelving them in the first floor stacks in the west end of the 
Smithsonian Building, next to the John Donnell Smith collection, 
all the available works on botanical subjects have been brought to- 
gether and rendered readily accessible. 

Sectional libraries-—Following is a complete list of sectional 
libraries: 


Administration. History. Parasites. 
Administrative assist- Insects. Photography. 

ant’s office. Invertebrate paleon- Physical anthropology. 
Anthropology tology. Prehistoric archeology. 
Biology. Mammals. Property clerk. 
Birds. Marine invertebrates. Registrar’s office. 
Botany. Materia medica. Reptiles and batrachians. 
Comparative anatomy. Mechanical technology. Superintendent’s office. 
Editor’s office. Mesozoic fossils. Taxidermy. 
Ethnology. Mineral technology. Textiles. 
Fishes. Minerals. Vertebrate paleontology. 
Food Mollusks. War library. 
Geology. Driental archeology. Wood technology. 
Graphic arts. Paleobotany. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY LIBRARY. 


A report of the operations of the library of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology will be found in the report of that bureau. This library 
is administered under the direct care of the ethnologist in charge. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY LIBRARY. 


The collection of reference works relating to astrophysics has been 
in constant use. Eighty-nine volumes, 11 parts of volumes, and 18 
pamphlets were accessioned during the year. 


NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK LIBRARY. 


The library of the National Zoological Park made an increase dur- 
ing the year of 140 volumes and 3 pamphlets. This library is not 
extensive, but is simply a working library. 


94. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
SUMMARY OF ACCESSIONS. 


The accessions during the year, with the exception of the library 
of the Bureau of American Ethnology, may be summarized as 
follows: 


To the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress, including parts 


TO COMNDICTS SOT Sei ee ee a ae ek sO i a a 2, O77 

To the Smithsonian office, Astrophysical Observatory, and National Zoo- 
lericahiRark week le ROE et aS A eee ee ee ee 639 
To the United States National Museum_——-_~-~--_-_---_+-----_---_---- 4, 786 
7, 502 


Respectfully subunetedy i 
Pav Brocketr, 


Assistant Librarian. 
Dr. Cuartes D. WALcorT, 


Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 7. 


REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the opera- 
tions of the United States Bureau of the International Catalogue of 
Scientific Literature for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the war in Europe practically ceased 
when the armistice of November 11, 1918, was declared, international 
affairs are still in such a chaotic state that no reorganization of the 
International Catalogue has yet been possible. All of the regional 
bureaus are in practically the same condition as they were in 1918, 
and are having difficulty in obtaining suitable aid to carry on their 
work. These conditions also greatly hamper the work of the Central 
Bureau in London, which, in addition, is faced with the pressing 
need of greater financial assistance. 

The receipts of the London Central Bureau, whose sole support 
is derived from sales of the catalogue to the various subscribers 
throughout the world, have been greatly curtailed and unless sub- 
scriptions increase or the bureaus of Germany, Austria, Hungary, 
Poland, Belgium, and Russia, who are in arrears to the extent of al- 
most $9,000 per annum, again contribute their support it will be nee- 
essary to obtain assistance from some other source to finance the en- 
terprise after the publication of the fourteenth annual issue. 

Since the publication of the last annual report of this bureau 
eight volumes of the catalogue have been published, which com- 
pletes the work through the thirteenth annual issue, with the excep- 
tion of one volume, that of physiology. Twelve of the 17 volumes of 
the fourteenth annual issue have been published. 

This bureau has continued to collect and classify the publications 
of the United States, and has now on hand a great quantity of mate- 
rial for the future volumes of the catalogue; indeed, in spite of war 
conditions, some of the sciences, notably zoology, have been indexed 
far in advance of the published volumes. 

It has been evident ever since the beginning of the war that there 
would have to be a general reorganization of the catalogue when in- 
ternational affairs become sufficiently settled to enable the various 
countries taking part in the enterprise to decide how much aid they 
can individually render in order that the ever-increasing literature 

95 


96 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


of science may be made available for general reference, and then 
through their representatives and delegates agree with the other na- 
tions on a plan to continue this great international index to science. 
Methods and means were very thoroughly considered before be- 
ginning the publication of the catalogue in 1901, and the methods 
then decided on and the classification schedules then published 
were probably at that time the best means of attaining the end 
sought; but the condition of the world and the methods and aims of 
scientific workers have now so changed that it is apparent that the 
organization and methods of the International Catalogue need re- 
vision. The Royal Society of London, which has been the principal 
sponsor of the catalogue since the beginning, has recently announced 
that after the completion of the fourteenth annual issue it will be 
necessary for some new financial agreement to be made in order to 
continue the work, and has requested the scientific academies 
throughout the world to offer suggestions as how best to accomplish 
the end in view. 

It may be well to here consider the need and aim of an inter- 
national organization to catalogue scientific literature. 

Many of the greatest minds of the day are engaged in researches 
and investigations the results of which are finally published in some 
form. It is obvious that means should exist to enable other workers 
in the same or similar fields as well as the general reader to refer to 
these publications. 

Revolutionizing advances in many of the arts, mdustries, and 
trades are often made by means of scientific research, and what to-day 
appears to be an abstract investigation in pure science to-morrow 
becomes a stepping-stone to some epoch-making invention which 
either entirely changes an old or establishes a new trade or industry. 
This was true even before the present war, but since then cases cf such 
revolutionary discoveries have multiplied to such an extent that it 
is hardly necessary to cite examples. AIl of the sciences have their 
special journals, many of which publish very complete indexes and 
even abstracts likely to be of interest to the specialists in various 
sciences, but there is no publication similar to the International Cata- 
logue of Scientific Literature, whose aim is to index and classify 
all of the literature of the pure sciences of the world. It has been 
one of the aims of the catalogue since the beginning to cooperate with 
the editors and publishers of other similar indexes in order to obviate 
duplication of labor. Cooperation of this kind has been accom- 
plished in several cases, notably that of the Zoological Record, which 
from 1906 to 1914 was published through the cooperation of the 
International Catalogue and the Zoological Society ef London, with 
the result that the combined volume was universally acknowledged 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 97 


to be far superior to any index of the kind ever published or, indeed, 
attempted. At the convention held in London in 1910 a committee 
was appointed and authorized to form similar combinations with 
the publishers of other indexes and yearbooks, but, unfortunately, 
for various reasons it has not yet been possible to form such com- 
binations to the extent authorized by the convention. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

Lronarp C. GUNNELL, 
Assistant in Charge. 
Dr. Cuartes D. Watcort, 
Secretary Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 8. 


REPORT ON THE PUBLICATIONS. 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the pub- 
lications of the Smithsonian Institution and its branches during the 
year ending June 30, 1919: 

The Institution proper published during the year 10 papers in 
the series of Miscellaneous Collections, pamphlet copies of 2 Annual 
Report separates, and 1 special publication. The Bureau of Ameri- 
can Ethnology published 5 bulletins, 1 Annual Report, and 1 ad- 
vance extract from the volume. The United States National Mu- 
seum issued 2 annual reports, 2 volumes of the proceedings, 48 
separate papers forming parts of these and other volumes, 6 bulle- 
tins, and 20 separate parts of other bulletins. 

The total number of copies of publications distributed by the 
Institution and its branches was 161,288, which includes 404 volumes 
and separate memoirs of Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 
15,608 volumes and separate pamphlets of Smithsonian Miscel- 
laneous Collections, 13,885 volumes and separate pamphlets of 
Smithsonian Annual Reports, 118,332 volumes and separates of Na- 
tional Museum publications, 11,483 publications of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, 1,444 special publications, 10 volumes of the 
Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory, 69 reports of the Harri- 
man Alaska Expedition, and 58 reports of the American Historical 
Association. 


SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS. 


Of the Miscellaneous Collections, volume 67, 1 paper was pub- 
lished; volume 68, 1 paper, title page, and table of contents; volume 
69, 7 papers; volume 70, 1 paper; in all, 11 issues, as follows: 


VOLUME 67. 


No. 4. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology. IV, No. 4. Appendages of 
Trilobites. By Charles D. Walcott. December, 1918. 216 pp. (Publ. 2523.) 


VOLUME 68. 


Title page and table of contents. (Publ. 2526.) December 20, 1918. 
No. 12. Explorations and Field-Work of the Smithsonian Institution in 1917. 
184 pp. (Publ. 2492.) July 24, 1918. 
98 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 99 


VOLUME 69. 


No. 2. The Mosses Collected by the Smithsonian African Expedition, 1909-10. 
By H. N. Dixon. October 8, 1918. 380 pp. (Publ. 2494.) 

No. 4. Early Mesozoic Physiography of the Southern Rocky Mountains. By 
Willis T. Lee. July, 1918. 50 pp. (Publ. 2497.) 

No. 8. Uganda Mosses Collected by R. Ditimmer and others. By H. N. 
Dixon. Oct. 21, 1918. 11 pp. (Publ. 2522.) 

No. 9. The Smithsonian Eclipse Expedition of June 8, 1918. By L. B. Ald- 
rich. March 5, 1919. 22 pp. (Publ. 2527.) 

No. 10. The Reflecting Power of Clouds. By L. B. Aldrich. February 10, 
1919. 9 pp. (Publ. 2530.) 

No. 11. The Races of Russia. By AleS Hrdli¢ka. March, 1919. 21 pp. 
(Publ. 2582.) 

No. 12. Begoniaceae Centrali-Americanae et Ecuadorenses. By Casimir de 
Candolle. April 9,1919. 10 pp. (Pub. 2533.) - 


VOLUME 70. 


No. 1. A Lower Cambrian Edrioasterid (Stromatocystites walcotti). By 
Charles Schuchert. May 8,1919. 9pp. (Publ. 2534.) 


SMITHSONIAN ANNUAL REPORTS. 
Report for 1917. 


The general appendix of the report for 1917, which was still in 
press at the end of the year, contains the following papers: 


Projectiles Containing Explosives, by Commandant A. R. 

Gold and Silver Deposits in North and South America, by Waldemar Lindgren. 

The Composition and Structure of Meteorites Compared with that of Terres- 
trial Rocks, by George P. Merrill. 

Corals and the Formation of Coral Reefs, by Thomas Wayland Vaughan. 

The Correlation of the Quaternary Deposits of the British Isles with those of 
the Continent of Hurope, by Charles E. P. Brooks. 

Floral Aspects of the Hawaiian Islands, by A. S. Hitchcock. 

Natural History of Paradise Key and the near-by Everglades of Florida, by 
W. E. Safford. 

Notes on the Early History of the Pecan in America, by Rodney H. True. 

The Social, Educational, and Scientific Value of Botanic Gardens, by John 
Merle Coulter. 

Bird Rookeries of the Tortugas, by Paul Bartsch. 

An Economie Consideration of Orthoptera directly Affecting Man, by A. N. 
Caudell. : 

An Outline of the Relations of Animals to their Inland Environments, by 
Charles C. Adams. 

The National Zoological Park: A Popular Account of its Collections, by N. 
Hollister. 

Ojibway Habitations and other Structures, by David I. Bushnell, jr. 

The Sea as a Conservator of Wastes and a Reservoir of Food, by H. F. Moore. 

National Work at the British Museum—Museums and Advancement of Learn- 
ing, by F. A. Bather. 

Leonhard Fuchs, physician and botanist, by Felix Neumann. 

In memoriam: Edgar Alexander Mearns, by Charles W. Richmond. 

William Bullock Clark. 


100 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
REPORT FOR 1918. 


The report of the executive committee and proceedings of the 
Board of Regents of the Institution and report of the secretary, both 
forming part of the annual report of the Board of Regents to Con- 
gress, were issued in pamphlet form in December, 1918. 


Report of the executive committee and proceedings of the Board of Regents 
of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ending June 30, 1918. 13 pp. 
(Publ. 2529.) 

Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ending 
June 30, 1918. 101 pp. (Publ. 2487.) 


The general appendix of the report for 1918, which was in press 
at the close of the year, contains the following papers: 


1. The Discovery of Helium, and what came of it, by C. G. Abbot. 

2. An Account of the Rise of Navigation, by R. H. Curtiss. 

8. The Tornadoes of the United States, by Robert DeC. Ward. 

4, Wind Power, by James Carlill. 

5. A Tribute. Samuel Pierpont Langley: Pioneer in Practical Aviation, by 
Henry Leffmann. 

6. Modern Physics, by R. A. Millikan. 

7. The Experiments of Dr. P. W. Bridgman on the Properties of Matter When 
Under High Pressure. Introductory note, by C. G. Abbot. 

8. The problem of Radioactive Lead, by Theodore W. Richards. 

9. Sphagnum Moss; war substitute for cotton in absorbent surgical dress- 
ings, by George H. Nichols. 

10. History of Military Medicine and its Contributions to Science, by Col. 
W. P. Chamberlain. 

11. Some Problems of International Readjustment of Mineral Supplies as 
Indicated in Recent Foreign Literature, by Eleanora F. Bliss. 

12. Reptile Reconstructions in the United States National Museum, by 
Charles W. Gilmore. 

18. A Pleistocene Cave Deposit of Western Maryland, by J. W. Gidley. 

14. Paleobotany: A Sketch of the Origin and Hvolution of Floras, by Edward 
W. Berry. 

15. The Direct Action of Environment and Evolution, by Prince Kropotkin. 

16. The Law of Irreversible Evolution, by Branislav Petronievics. 

17. The Fundamental Factor of Insect Evolution, by S. S. Chetverikov. 

18. The Psychic Life of Insects, by E. L. Bouvier. 

19. Sexual Selection and Bird Song, by Chauncey J. Hawkins. 

20. Marine Camoufleurs and their Camouflage: The present and prospective 
significance of facts regarding coloration of tropical fishes, by W. H. Longley. 

21. Foot-Plow Agriculture in Peru, by O. F. Cook. ~ 

22. Sun Worship of the Hopi Indians, by J. Walter Fewkes. 

23. The League of the Iroquois and its Constitution: A constitutional 
league of peace in the Stone Age of America, by J. N. B. Hewitt. 

24, The Problem of Degeneracy, by H. F. Tredgold. 

25. History in Tools, by W. M. Flinders Petrie. 

26. The Background of Totemism, by HE. Washburn Hopkins. 

27. A Great Naturalist: Sir Joseph Hooker, by Sir H. Ray Lankester. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 101 


SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS. 


The following publication was issued in octavo form: 


Classified list of Smithsonian publications available for distribution October 
15, 1918. 1918. 31 pp. (Publ. 2524.) 


PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


The publications of the National Museum are: (a) The annual 
report to Congress; (>) The Proceedings of the United States Na- 
tional Museum; and (¢c) The Bulletin of the United States National 
Museum, which includes the Contributions from the United States 
National Herbarium. The editorship of these publications is vested 
in Dr. Marcus Benjamin. . 

During the year the museum published 2 annual reports, 2 volumes 
of the proceedings, 48 separate papers forming parts of these and 
other volumes, 6 bulletins, and 20 separate parts of other bulletins. 

The issues of the proceedings were as follows: Volumes 52 and 53 
complete. 

The issues of the bulletins were as follows: 


Bulletin 50, Part VIII. The Birds of North and Middle America, by Robert 
Ridgway. 

Bulletin 99. Hast African Mammals in the United States National Museum; 
Part I, Insectivora, Chiroptera, and Carnivora; and Part II, Rodentia, Lago- 
morpha, and Tubutidentata, by N. Hollister. 

Bulletin 100. Contributions to the Biology of the Philippine Archipelago and 
Adjacent Regions. Volume 1, part 4: Report on the Chaetognatha collected by 
the United States Fisheries Steamer Albatross during the Philippine Hxpedition, 
1907-1910, by Hillis L. Michael; part 5, Hydromedusae, Siphonophores, and Cteno- 
phores of the Albatross Philippine Expedition, by Henry B. Bigelow. Volume 2, 
part 1: The Salpidae collected by the United States Fisheries Steamer Albatross 
in Philippine waters during the years 1908 and 1909, by Maynard M. Metcalf; 
part 2: The Salpidae—a taxonomic study, by Maynard M. Metcalf and Mary M. 
Bell. Volume 3: Contributions to the Biology of the Philippine Archipelago and 
Adjacent Regions. Starfishes of the Philippine Seas and Adjacent Waters, by 
Walter K. Fisher. 

Bulletin 102, volume 1. The Hnergy Resources of the United States—a field 
for reconstruction, by Chester G. Gilbert and Joseph E. Pogue. Also, The Min- 
eral Industries of the United States. Part 5: Power—its significance and needs, 
by Chester G. Gilbert and Joseph E. Pogue. Part 6: Petroleum—a Resource 
Interpretation, by Chester G. Gilbert and Joseph E. Pogue. Part 7: Natural 
Gas—its production, service, and conservation, by Samuel S. Wyer. 

Bulletin 103. Contributions to the Geology and Paleontology of the Canal 
Zone, Panama, and geographically related areas in Central America and the 
West Indies, represents the work of a number of specialists, whose papers 
were issued, in separate form, as follows: 

Pages 1-13: On some fossil and recent Lithothamnicae of the Panama Canal 
Zone, by Marshall A. Howe. 

Pages 15-44: The Fossil Higher Plants from the Canal Zone, by Hdward W. 
Berry. 

Pages 45-87: The Smaller Fossil Foraminifera of the Panama Canal Zone, by 
Joseph Augustine Cushman. 


12573°—21—_8 


102 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Pages 89-102: The Larger Fossil Foraminifera of the Panama Canal Zone, 
by Joseph Augustine Cushman. 

Pages 103-116: Fossil Echini of the Panama Canal Zone and Costa Rica, by 
Robert Tracy Jackson. 

Pages 117-122: Bryozoa of the Canal Zone and related areas, by Ferdinand 
Canu and Ray S. Bassler. 

Pages 123-184: Decapod Crustaceans from the Panama Region, by Mary J. 
Rathbun. 

Pages 185-188: Cirripedia from the Panama Canal Zone, by H. A. Pilsbry. 

Pages 525-545: The Sedimentary Formations of the Panama Canal Zone, 
with special reference to the Stratigraphic relations of the fossiliferous beds, 
by Donald Francis MacDonald. 

Pages 547-612: The Biologic Character and Geologic Correlation of the 
Sedimentary Formation of Panama in their relation to the geologic history 
of Central America and the West Indies, by Thomas Wayland Vaughan. 

Bulletin 104 (one part). The Foraminifera of the Atlantic Ocean, by Joseph 
Augustine Cushman, viz: Part 1, “Astrorhizidae,” was issued. Of the remain- 
ing separates, two formed parts of volume 20, Contributions from the United 
States National Herbarium, while 19 were from volume 54, and 29 from vol- 
ume 55 of the Proceedings. 

Bulletin 105. Catalogue of the Postage Stamps and Stamped Envelopes of 
the United States and Possessions, issued prior to January 1, 1919, by Josiah 
B. Leavy. 


PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


The publications of the bureau are discussed in Appendix 2. The 
editorial work of the bureau is in charge of Mr. Stanley Searles, 
editor. 

During the year five bulletins, the Thirty-second Annual Report, 
an advance extract from this report, and a list of publications were 
issued, as follows: 


Bulletin 59. Kutenai Tales. Franz Boas. 1918. 387 pp. 

Bulletin 61. Teton Sioux Music. Frances Densmore. 1918. 561 pp., 82 plates. 

Bulletin 64. The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British 
Honduras. Thomas W. F. Gann. 1918. 146 pp., 28 plates. 

Bulletin 65. Archeological Explorations in Northeastern Arizona. Alfred Vin- 
cent Kidder and Samuel J. Guernsey. 1915. 228 pp., 97 plates. 

Bulletin 66. Recent Discoveries Attributed to Harly Man in America. AleS 
Hrdlitka. 1918. 67 pp., 14 plates. 

Introduction to Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths. Collected by Jeremiah 
Curtin and J. N. B. Hewitt. Edited by J. N. B. Hewitt. 1919. An advance 
separate from the Thirty-second Annual Report. 71 pp. 

Thirty-second Annual Report—Accompanying paper: Seneca Fiction, Leg- 
ends, and Myths. (Hewitt and Curtin.) 819 pp. 

List of publications of the bureau. 

There are at present in press five annual reports, and nine bulletins 
as follows: 

Bulletin 60. Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities. Part' 1 
(Holmes). 

Bulletin 67. Alsea Texts and Myths (Frachtenberg). 

Bulletin 68. Structural and Lexical Comparison of the Tunica, Chitimacha, 
und Atakapa Languages (Swanton). 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 103 


Bulletin 69. Native Villages and Village Sites Hast of the Mississippi (Bush- 
nell). 

Bulletin 70. Prehistoric Villages, Castles, and Towers (Fewkes). 

Bulletin 71. Native Cemeteries and Forms of Burial Hast of the Mississippi 
(Bushnell). 

Bulletin 72. The Owl Sacred Pack of the Fox Indians (Michelson). 

Bulletin —. Handbook of the Indians of California (Kroeber). 

Bulletin —. Northern Ute Musie (Densmore). 


REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


The annual reports of the American Historical Association are 
transmitted by the association to the secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution and are communicated to Congress under the provisions 
of the act of incorporation of the association. 

Volume 1 of the report for 1916 was published during the year, 
and volume 2 of the same report was in press on June 30. 


REPORT OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE 
AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


The manuscript of the twenty-first annual report of the National 
Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was trans- 
mitted to Congress according to law shortly after the close of the 
fiscal year. 


THH SMITHSONIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PRINTING AND 
PUBLICATION. 


The editor has continued to serve as secretary of the Smithsonian 
advisory committee on printing and publication. This committee 
passes on all manuscripts offered for publication by the Institution 
or its branches, and considers forms of routine, blanks, and various 
other matters pertaining to printing and publication. Thirteen meet- 
ings were held during the year and 79 manuscripts were acted upon. 

Respectfully submitted. 

W. P. Trun, Lditor. 

To Dr. Cuartes D. Watxcort, 

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


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REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF 
REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION FOR THE 
YEAR ENDING JUNE 380, 1919. 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 


Your executive committee respectfully submits the following report 
in relation to the funds, receipts, and disbursements of the Institution 
and a statement of the appropriations by Congress for the National 
Museum, the international exchanges, the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology, the National Zoological Park, the Astrophysical Observatory, 
the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, etc., for the 
year ending June 30, 1919, together with balances of previous appro- 
priations : 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
Condition of the fund July 1, 1919. 


In addition to the total sum of $1,000,000 deposited in the Treasury 
of the United States, and authorized under section 5591, Revised 
Statutes, the details of which were given in our last report, there 
has accumulated from incomes, bequests, and by transfer the sum of 
$74,794.38, which has been invested in bonds of approved character 
for the following specific accounts and carried on the books of the 
Institution as the consolidated fund, viz: 


TE Uy He Raver a SH we MEU GG Map key mon piconet ifs $37, 275. 00 
TRUSS OY Les ec a ae or hg el Pa aces tong Nar enue ves oe eee tear eNO 74. 00 
BAS Tray aces LT Chater eae «RAR SRN PS a EN Ne 14, 824. 45 
SCOUOU TONG, A DE Ree het 0 Peaks ey eo ee CL a MCN RNIN Dye SE FA 1, 348. 00 
vey trance G COLSC a Was OOre wt Umno Aaa SNS 2 eee ee 2, 819. 00 
Georzen is Santorg) fund se. 2 os Tab ede Ep PMR ALDEN NYA EL 142. 00 
psi eh SY DTT BLU ETH Le lea Nhs kg eB ial ga cs A og hic a AR fll 984. 00 
(Gohan a SreN ER Wea oo 0 be ee cle oft Ly ee LO OOOS OO) 
J Brey (Sau) EU Md wf eno 01 a a ea a ea 7, 327. 93 

ih OY SE2) hel  cetnc  snet ecaRAE NRE eRe Se NI RC 2d hn A a 74, 794. 38 


One of the pieces of real estate bequeathed to the Institution by 
the late Robert Stanton Avery has been sold and the proceeds rein- 
105 


106 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


vested in bonds comprising the consolidated fund. Only a single 
parcel of ground with improvements thereon remains of the several 
bequeathed to the Institution by this benefactor. 

Among the assets comprising the Lucy T. and George W. Poore 
fund were several lots of unimproved property near the city of 
Lowell, Mass. A part of these lots have been sold during the year, 
and the sum of $520.50 was realized. 


Statement of receipts and disbursements from July 1, 1918, to June 30, 1919. 


RECEIPTS. 
Cash on deposit<angdsin sate, July dGise x. 2 See ee ee $1, 289. 90 
Interest on fund in United States Treasury_ $60, 000. 00 
Oiher interest eiG7 Gos ess ie ae ae 4, 466. 94 
——_—-——— $64, 466. 94 
Repayments, rentals, publications, ete_-_-__-----._~__ 34, 723. 33 
Contributions for specific purposes________-________--_ 26, 348. 26 
TSA AUS ARGS Sy exes v6] yl =a a eA es A NE =A AN AM a aa a 15, 000. 00 
receeds trom sale or realvestates. 22 eae 3, 567. 00 
-—— 144, 109. 53 
145, 390. 43 
DISBURSEMENTS. 
ail ies aire Hern eer ep) ANTS ee ee AN a OE ene ane he Se 6, 946. 48 
IRE Cera UT wen TN ele hiloNe ont eee as De ne Not Use OURS BAAN ATION Os 2 
General expenses: 
AS eafT AvTT OS se a Ud a RAILS eed ee 17, 671. 70 
Meetinastt ee fen diomrialy (Wy es Toe hey prepa Pete d 126. 00 
NSH ZITO dec) (— ecoeane a CEE MANY SUIRUNN aera sR ORWEL oer Cpa cere 721. 47 
Postage, telegraph, and telephone_________________ 766. 09 
1 SU Sys) ent ec ah amine it aS en a Gre PAL ene 84. 58 
EnNeidentalsy = hirely yan niet ste ee eke cme reree es nacre 1, 388. 93 
Garage ov cw icee TO) Bees fl Gea 4 OE TE 2, 674. 51 
—— 23,483.28 
MTA fe a es ae A ee lee 2, 581, 81 
Publications and their distribution: 
Miscellaneous) collections.22 2.222 222. ea eee 5, 060. 54 
Special publicavionss <= 22esse=s. Sole eee 225, 25 
Publication: Suppliesees. = 2222 2N ee eee 336. 66 
FST BEM a SVS Sea TE oR PN ee La AR NS he NSS 5, 696. 17 
arriman: puUbliGatlOMns ie. ee ee 49, 45 
—— 11,368. 07 
Hxplorations, researches. and) collections. a eee 3, 647. 00 
Hodgkins specific fund, researches, and publications______________ 5, 049. 33 
Misi dice eT ed vt CO TM CAT sxc E MTN Sa SA a ee 655. 89 
(SAMMY pai Onlecs eot isis os ee Se Rea a tn OE EE ree Sect 26. 00 
Consolidated (fund (invested) ____________ SUS ge gl PONS AR sd eae Corn OCU 
Sills reccivaple-time ceniitcates. = = Eline ee ee 25, 000. 00 
Interest acerued—consolidated fund___________ SeR 2 eee ney cab MT 107. 50 
AOVANCeS LOL THETA” XP CHSC, Cb ses ete eee ee eee ene 57, 148. 00 


148, 267, 65 


REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 107 


Deposited with Treasurer of the United States and in 
‘OEE ae Bei St HL UII ONT ep a el $1, 922. 78 
Oya REO Tilo Fa eqTs Coes 2 a he a ew REN 200. 00 
$2, 122. 78 


145, 390. 43 


The itemized report of the auditor confirms the foregoing state- 
ment of receipts and expenditures, and is approved. A summary of 
the report follows: 

CaApITaL AvupiIT Co., 
METROPOLITAN BANK BUILDING, 
Washington, D. C. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, BOARD OF REGENTS, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

Sirs: We have examined the accounts and vouchers of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1919, and certify the following to be a 
correct statement: 


Retail neGceim icp 2) 370 okie ht ee A as EO ipa lalate be $144, 100. 53 
Miptal disbarsements eo) es on ee A nage Bik 148, 267. 65 
Hxcess of receipts over disbursements______—___--___-__--_ ee 882. 88 
Amount trom” duly: 1, 1918. 2-2 eS 1, 289. 90 

Balance on hand June 30, 1919_------_--~--- =) ~- 42 LLL 2) 122. 18 
Balance, as shown by treasurer’s statement, as of June 30, 1919____ 3, T79. 06 
MESSMO EShAn GINS, . CHECK Stare weeds oy kan nacaw Saul ns ee ead Deine cele Reale Seale 8, 804. 73 
al ATT COSY tee ae AE CBE PEE ALINE 1 8 Skid PE die 2's era tke «Ls yl ATA. 33 
ialonce, American INational Bank se tes ee eee ee 1, 448. 45 
 OEUST N+ OTR: TEEN le SEER ah eee eae he ne Se a ag 200. 00 

Balance tine 150, LOO ee See ee a eee 2, 122. 78 


- The vouchers representing payments from the Smithsonian income during the 
year, each of which bears the approval of the secretary or, in his absence, of the 
acting secretary, and a certificate that the materials and services charged were 
applied to the purposes of the Institution, have been examined in connection 
with the books of the Institution and agree with them. ( 
CapitAL AupiIT Co., 
By WiLitiAmM L. YArcer, President. 

All payments are made by check, signed by the secretary, on the 
Treasurer of the United States, and all revenues are deposited to the 
credit of the same account, except in some instances small deposits are 
now made in bank for convenience of collection. 

The practice of investing temporarily idle funds in time deposits 
has proved highly satisfactory. During the year the interest derived 
from this source has amounted to $1,048.10. 

Your committee also presents the following summary of appro- 
priations for the fiscal year 1919 intrusted by Congress to the care 
of the Smithsonian Institution, balances of previous appropriations 
at the beginning of the fiscal year, and amounts unexpended on 
June-30, 1919: 


108 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Available Balance 
after July 1, June 30, 
1918. 1919. 
liaierastnaveratsy | (op-qclotihoyze\s alt) [7 GAS ROR ARMIEN SOR MM SEE Ni ela ES A Ree See me cictciaoe $859, 93 1 $859. 93 
Tntornmationall ex ChamPes LOLS, oa ceee = acl = eters uienelefeltelne wa oinecaiaherarretmteratere ate 5, 296. 80 893. 24 
Inbernational exchanges) 1OUGNS Ss see onlaialere matte amelie teat leis elie Pt 35, 000. 00 8, 794. 55 
American Hthnologyy AQUI kek das qh = = SAIS I AAA SHI Dade Ne AO 138, 31 1119, 71 
Asmerican Etbnology, 1918, csecpie cers 6 -ri4- b= SEE Es Pea ewer ee -eL ce 3, 817.51 430. 21 
American, FGM OLOP Ys LOL so a eee alate ele a ie meted ele ite ei 42,000. 00 5, 885. 29 
Unternational: CAvBlOPTIC OM ee ante sees aialelaie ate alele lela erate eel eae el ele er 226. 77 16. 24 
International Catalogite; 1918 .ce sto ce =o - nn mm eete= oe eel aie le we = alae = me 963. 64 585. 10 
Intermmatronal Catalogues to19. Ysa no a clo in cine eeisiee = = =o 7, 500. 00 1, 186. 75 
ASiropnysical ObSanvAtOby, LOL (oscere -mce = eis = mle omaley elawe tela elem alr lem 570. 46 176. 71 
Astrophysical: Observatory, {1918.4.2 222% 2a--e be - Se seeepiaepft. Je Yee 4-6 1, 771.14 230. 67 
Astrophysical@bservat OLVe 1910. eo occ. dase pei reeac er tetas 13, 000. 00 2, 663. 21 
Observations: eclipseof sum), 1918 oe ea oo tee a aaa a tee aie eee cic 1, 929. 88 1, 455. 33 
National Museum: 
IN Toran oieD ial seb-aeR SS OE Nha een AeA hoo tcksBoonesksatacopsbcccesec 18. 97 118.97 
PTT b Ure ANG LEXbUTES; AGUS ca. a sieto eee sete rar et cielo eral teres 6, 845. 77 48.14 
GTINGUNS BMG emt WECS LOU OS Moe miele eetaie ale aese arate eral ette ata 15, 000.00 910. 99 
eatin mand lieitinewat his censons sense eee esteem aaa aataae i=l 699. 24 1 688. 24 
eating and lightingy M918 ooo o sap cme sei nee ene beenerets = eae 6, 103. 77 372. 78 
Meanie angie iting A919. ceo pees eee eee aisle een eee a 55, 000. 00 6, 245. 76 
IBTeServatiON Ol CONCCUIONS Oldie etsai nie mince aici mialersyelereeiste ai lel ee 647. 87 1 243. 34 
Preservation of collections, 1918. ---.<-- 25-5 ejected ge dem <2 oa 12, 903. 59 4, 943. 88 
Preservation of collections, 1919_-.--.-.....--.---.--+---.--------------- 300, 000. 00 33, 383. 19 
TOOKS) 19112 2) = SES. Ree eee. - tee ath ws aeefe rites “eo Sietia tt oche - 450. 60 1 411.60 
BOOKS) 1918.) Sass eaos shoo SE ROR CRE Sere MEE CCE a necee eee 1, 227. 60 292. 80 
TESTS PR RSI sa SRS SOO NE RECN OS SEES OME RU LN 2, 000. 00 1, 356. 36 
ROSE Me TRIO) Hoos a oe aos ecesoeouseaeeeoorcd A Se eyale ive Saas creceefaaas DOOLO0 fee aeyeiesiefee sale 
Ledinud Ualiaeehtsy op beSyon LO fete RI Sal Se eA ne Bae Sea. see eeeenock as 195. 59 1195.59 
TEVA tia ae eee a enh an oad opaccecuEsesbeouceae 2,174.38 46.37 
Bil dee FE pPAIls, O19 wee ae ae ee eel ateta iam eel icfatar an eeore aratee Sarat 10, 000. 00 3, 530. 84 
INationaleZoologiealsParkes PONies neo ss elo ee aioe el sare se aterete <tc ie clare epee ioe 83.30 1 83.30 
INaOna a OOlOfiCalsb ark Ol See sn ase eae ape aien ta elamie ae eaee eee e 9, 743. 24 2.53 
National Zoological Park, 1919220. 2225200412. s24249- Rlowaggseeet yesbigeen 115,000.00} . 10,534.95 
Increase of compensation, 1919 (indefinite)..........---.----------+--2--2222-]e 2222 eee eee e|ee eee eee eee 


1 Carried to credit of surplus fund. 
Statement of estimated income from the Smithson fund and from other sources, 
accrued and prospective, to be available during the fiscal year ending June 
80, 1920. 


Balanced ame BOR DOUG ish ace cons tig Deeg alien ye PS eae aye ee Pre pe $2, 122. 78 
IBIS ereceiyal ets seus a ie $30, 000. 00 
Interest on fund deposited in United States Treasury 
OME AUN ye te LOLO Mm Gh es LOD ee neers oe Soe 60, 000. 00 
Interest from miscellaneous sources______-__--__--____~ 4, 048. 00 
Exchange repayments, sale of publications, refund of 
Ad yancess eter PaO web a wy pede LL skeen Pers 25, 508. 04 
Deposits for specific purposes== esse 16, 500. 00 


136, 051. 04 


Total available for year ending June 30, 1920______--__-____ 138, 1738. 82 


Respectfully submitted. ‘Ganaya Gen 
. 9 


ALEXANDER GraHAm BELL, 
Executive Committee. 


PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITH- 
SONIAN INSTITUTION FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING 
JUNE 30, 1919. 


ANNUAL MEETING DECEMBER 12, 1918. 


The board met at the Institution at 10 o’clock a. m. 

Present: The Hon. Edward D. White, Chief Justice of the United 
States, chancellor, in the chair; the Hon. Thomas R. Marshall, Vice 
President of the United States; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge; Repre- 
sentative Lemuel P. Padgett; Representative Frank L. Greene; Dr. 
Alexander Graham Bell; Judge George Gray; Mr. Charles F. Choate, 
jr-; Mr. John B. Henderson; and the secretary, Mr. Charles D. 
Walcott. 


DEATH OF REGENTS. 


The secretary announced the death of Senator Stone, a regent for 
over five years. 

Senator Lodge presented the following resolutions, which were 
adopted : 


Whereas the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution having learned 
of the death, on April 14, 1918, of the Hon. William Joel Stone, United States 
Senator from Missouri, and for over five years a member of this board: 

Resolved, That the regents desire to place on record an expression of their 
deep regret at the passing away of their distinguished colleague; 

Resolved, That this resolution be recorded in the proceedings of the board, and 
that a copy be transmitted by the secretary to the family of Senator Stone. 


The death of the Hon. Charles Warren Fairbanks was announced. 
Vice President Marshall submitted the following resolutions, which 
were adopted: 


Whereas the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution having learned 
of the death, on June 4, 1918, of the Hon. Charles Warren Fairbanks, one of 
their number : 

Resolved, That the regents hear with profound sorrow of the passing away 
of their distinguished colleague, who, during two periods of his useful life was 
a member of this board; first, as vice president of the United States from 1905 
to 1909 when he was ex officio a regent; next as a citizen regent from Indiana 
from 1912 to the date of his death. Mr. Fairbanks was always a force for 
good, and his loss is deeply felt by his colleagues; 

Resolwed, That this resolution be spread upon the records of the board, and 
that a copy be transmitted by the secretary to the family of our departed friend 
and coworker. 

109 


LTO ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


In this connection the secretary also announced the death of former 
regent Dr. Andrew D. White, who had served on the board for over 
28 years, from 1888 to 1916. 

Dr. Bell presented the following resolutions, which were unani- 
mously adopted: 

Whereas the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution having learned 
of the death, on November 4, 1918, of Dr. Andrew Dickson White, a founder 
of Cornell University and its president for 18 years, preeminently distinguished 
also as a diplomat and as a publicist, a regent of the Smithsonian Institution 
from 1888 to 1916: 

Resolved, That the board desire to place on record an expression of their 
sincere sorrow at the decease of their former colleague, who for over 28 years 
gave the benefit of his ripened wisdom to the affairs of the Institution, and 
whose death will be a most serious loss in the fields of learning, of diplomacy, 
and of citizenship ; 

Resolved, That this minute be placed upon the records of the board, and that 
a copy be transmitted by the secretary to the family of Dr. White. 


APPOINTMENT OF REGENTS. 


The secretary announced the appointment of regents, as follows: 

By the President of the Senate, on May 10, 1918: The Hon. 
Charles S. Thomas, a Senator from Colorado, to succeed the Hon. 
William Joel Stone, deceased. 

By the Speaker of the House of Representatives, on December 15, 
1917: The Hon. Scott Ferris, to succeed himself; the Hon. Lemuel P. 
Padgett, to succeed Mr. James T. Lloyd, whose term as a Representa- 
tive had expired; the Hon. Frank L. Greene, to succeed Mr. Ernest 
W. Roberts, whose term as a Representative had expired. 


RESOLUTION RELATIVE TO INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 


Judge Gray, chairman of the executive committee, submitted the 
following resolution, which was adopted: 


Resolved, That the income of the Institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1920, be appropriated for the service of the Institution to be expended by the 
secretary with the advice of the executive committee, with full discretion on 
the part of the secretary as to items. 


ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 


Judge Gray, chairman, presented the annual report of the com- 
mittee, showing the financial condition of the Institution for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1918. 

On motion, the report was adopted. 


PROCEEDINGS CF REGENTS. 111 
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE. 


At the request of Judge Gray, chairman, tne secretary presented 
the following report: 


DECEMBER 12, 1918. 
To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 


GENTLEMEN: Your permanent committee submits herewith its report for the 
past year on the matters under its supervision: 

Hodgkins fund—aAs stated in the report made at the last annual meeting 
$5,000 per annum for three years had been allotted from the Hodgkins fund 
to Dr. Charles G. Abbot, Director of the Astrophysical Observatory, for the 
establishment of a solar radiation observing station in the Argentine Republic, 
which project had to be temporarily abandoned owing to war conditions. 
The station was located at Hlk Park, N. C., however, and observations taken 
until the early summer, when the work at that point ceased. 

In June, 1918, the observer and his assistant proceeded to Chile and estab- 
lished a station at Calama, 7,500 feet above sea level. 

An allotment of $5,000 from the Hodgkins fund was also made to Mr. R. H. 
Goddard, of Clark College, for developing certain devices to be used in 
connection with the study of the temperature of the higher atmospheric strata. 
This work became merged into a series of important experiments in connec: 
tion with the work of the War Department. 

Avery bequest.—Since the last report two of the properties coming to the 
Institution under this bequest have been disposed of—No. 120 B Street, NE., and 
No. 326 A Street, SE. Only one lot remains, situated at No. 140 Hast Capitol 
Street. The Avery fund now totals $28,874.51. 

The Bruce Hughes bequest.—The Rev. Bruce Hughes, of Lebanon, Pa., by 
will dated November 24, 1914, provided in the ninth section that the balance 
and residue of his estate should come to the Smithsonian Institution, the 
income to be used for the founding of the Hughes Alcove of the Institution. 
Mr. Hughes died March 20, 1916, and during the past year the sum of $9,503.18 
has been received from his executors. 

The Poore bequesit.—As previously stated, $24,534.82 have been received by 
the Institution as the proceeds of this estate, exclusive of a number of lots 
situated in a rather undesirable section of Lowell, Mass. Several attempts 
have been made to dispose of these properties, but up to this time only one 
lot has been sold, and deposits have been made on four others. Including the 
sale mentioned, and additions by earnings to date, this bequest now amounts to 
$28,786.98. 

Freer Art Gallery.——The present condition of the Freer Art Gallery fund is 
as follows: 


TASSELS OATS af mA ec AN yh aR ADE hr haa ihe Ra lo $1, 320, 228. 77 
JCS Oy BMeGSVE5 0S 0 Se stn gl IN cp al MA Med, tance $703, 662. 36 
SULT Ce Lem Meth oR mme sera TERNS, NUE a 616, 566. 41 


1, 320, 228. 77 


Consolidated fund.—The consolidated fund of the Institution, which em- 
braces investments in excess of the permanent fund of $1,000,000 deposited in 
the Treasury of the United States, now amounts to $68,974.38. 


~ 


On motion, the report was approved. 


112 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 


The secretary presented his report of the operations of the In- 
stitution for the year ending June 30, 1918, which was accepted. 


REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE USE OF THE MUSEUM BUILDINGS. 


The report of the chairman of the committee, Mr. Henry White, 
was presented by the secretary, as follows: 


NoveMBER 29, 1918. 
To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 


GENTLEMEN: I submit herewith my report as chairman of the committee 
on the use of the museum buildings by the departments of the Government, 
which was created by resolution of the board of regents, adopted at the annual 
meeting of the board on December 138, 1917, as follows: 

Resoived, That there shall be a committee of the board of regents on the use 
of the National Museum buildings by the departments of the Government, and 
the erection of structures on the Smithsonian grounds, which committee shall 
act for the board with full power on all matters comprehended by this reso- 
lution. 

Resolved, That such committee shall be appointed by the chancellor, who 
shall be ex officio a member thereof. 

The chancellor appointed the following as members of the committee: Mr. 
Henry White, the chancellor, Senator Lodge, Senator Stone, Representative 
Ferris, Mr. Henderson; the secretary of the Institution to act as secretary of 
the committee. 

The immediate occasion for the creation of the committee was the request 
of the President that certain portions of the new building for the National 
Museum be allotted to the Bureau of War Risk Insurance for administrative 
and office purposes. Prior to the meeting of the board, some 25,000 square feet 
of space had been assigned to this purpose by the secretary, whose action was 
ratified by the board. 

As urgent requests had been received for additional space, this committee 
was charged with the duty of examining into the matter and of deciding upon 
the action to be taken. 

The committee was convinced that no obstacle should be placed in the way 
of the proper conduct of the important work of the bureau, whose function is 
to provide insurance and indemrity for the enlisted men of the Army and Navy; 
and so at meetings held from time to time additional space was allotted until 
at the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1918, the bureau occupied 69,286 square 
feet, thus providing accommodations for over 3,000 employees of the bureau. 

The need for space continued to grow, and the President, on July 5, re- 
quested that the building be closed to the public and that all remaining ex- 
hibition space be placed at the disposal of the bureau. This was done, thereby 
making available for the use of the bureau in the basement, or ground floor, 
and in the two exhibition floors, a total of 138,600 square feet, accommodating 
between 5,000 and 6,000 of the bureau employees. Much of the expense in- 
cident to the adaptation of this space to the purposes of office and administra- 
tive work was borne by the bureau. 

In view of the action described above, the committee authorized the sec- 
retary to open to the public on Sunday afternoons, if considered desirable, 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 113 


the exhibition portions of the Smithsonian Building and the Industrial Arts 
Building of the Nuseum. 

It is with regret that I record the death of a member of the committee, 
Senator Stone, which occurred April 14, 1918. Upon learning that Senator 
Thomas had been appointed as a regent to succeed him, I invited the latter 
to take Senator Stone’s place upon the committee. 

Respectfully submitted. 

HENRY WHITE, Chairman. 


On motion, the report was accepted. 
DEATH OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY RICHARD RATHBUN. 


The secretary announced the death on July 16, 1918, of Dr. Rich- 
ard Rathbun, assistant secretary of the Institution. 

A statement giving an account of Dr. Rathbun’s work and associa- 
tion with the Institution will be found in the annual report of the 
secretary. 


APPOINTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT IN CHARGE OF NATIONAL 
MUSEUM. 


The secretary announced that he had appointed Mr. William de 
C. Ravenel as administrative assistant to the secretary in charge of 
the National Museum. 

Mr. Ravenel had been associated with the Museum since 1902 as 
administrative assistant to Dr. Rathbun. He has had unusual 
museum training and experience, both in connection with his duties 
and with all governmental expositions held since 1892, and he has 
been largely instrumental in building up the War Museum which 
is now assuming importance. 

Mr. Ravenel has also been practically in charge of the Arts and 
Industries Museum for some time, and, in view of this, he has also 
been appointed to direct its activities. 


APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 


The secretary called the attention of the board to the desirability 
of appointing an assistant secretary, and stated that he had selected 
Dr. Charles Greeley Abbot, the Director of the Astrophysical Ob- 
servatory of the Institution. 

Dr. Abbot was appointed an assistant to Secretary Langley in 
1895 as aid acting in charge of the Astrophysical Observatory. He 
was engaged continuously in original researches on solar radiation, 
in cooperation with Mr. Langley up to the time of the latter’s death, 
in 1906, when he assumed the entire charge of that work. 

Dr. Abbot is an astronomer, a mathematician, and a physicist, and 
is forceful, energetic, and effective. He will remain in charge of 


114 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


the Astrophysical Observatory, and will also take general direc- 
tion of the library and international exchanges, and perform such 
other duties as may be assigned to him. 

On motion, the appointment of Dr. Abbot as assistant secretary 
of the Smithsonian Institution was approved. 


THE SECRETARY’S SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT. 


The secretary made the following statement of results which have 
been accomplished in the various activities of the institution since 
the preparation of his annual report: 


UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


Additions to collections —The noteworthy additions to the regular 
collections of the Museum since July 1, included: 

A large collection of historical theatrical costumes, presented by 
Mrs. Richard Mansfield, consisting of costumes and accessories worn 
by the late Richard Mansfield. , 

A priceless collection of antillean land mollusks, about 30,000 lots, 
approximately 400,000 specimens, donated by a regent of the institu- 
tion, Mr. John B. Henderson. 

Mineral technology.—tThe collections in this division are being 
assembled with the two fold purpose of arousing a fuller apprecia- 
tion of the public’s indebtedness to mining and metallurgical enter- 
prises and of promoting a readier familiarity with the production 
and uses developed. At the beginning of the year 18 groups were 
on display in the exhibition halls. Besides these exhibits there have 
been issued during the past 18 months, largely as war contributions, 
6 nontechnical pamphlets, as follows: 

Coal Products: An object lesson in resource administration. 

Fertilizers: An interpretation of the situation in the United States. 

Sulphur: An example of industrial independence. 

Coal: The resource and its full utilization. 

Power: Its significance and needs. 

Petroleum: A resource interpretation. 

Textiles—The purposes of the Division of Textiles are to show 
the raw materials used in the textile arts and the development and 
use of these from the technical standpoint. 

Wood technology illustrates the forests, their products, and the 
lessons taught by the recent progress in forestry studies. 

The Division of Medicine illustrates the evolution of the healing 
art and the theories of disease; the materials used in medication and 
various methods of preparing and administering the same; the prin- 
ciples of disease prevention and the materials and appliances used 
to this end. 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 115 


In the conservation of food and the selection of a balanced ration, 
besides attractive instructive exhibits, a diet kitchen, recently opened 
in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture, furnishes a 
graphic demonstration of the best and most economic methods of 
preparing food. 

Mechanical technology.—tThe science which treats of the applica- 
tion of the forces of nature to human needs by means of machinery. 
This division contains illustrations of the history of transportation 
by land, sea, and air; the history and development of electricity; 
weapons of war and of the chase; fishing apparatus; and miscella- 
neous machinery showing progress in mechanical invention. 

Graphic arts—The division covers the methods and results of 
printing and binding, besides artistic reproduction by all known 
methods. In the Section of Photography there is shown by methods, 
apparatus, and prints a history of photography which is wholly 
unique. 

Musical instruments:—This section contains a collection of musical 
instruments, both from aboriginal and civilized peoples, exceeded by 
only one other museum collection in the country, and during the past 
four years has received a remarkable addition relating to the history 
of the pianoforte from the earliest times to about 1850. 

Ceramics.—This section, through lack of means and space, has only 
the beginnings of collections of pottery, glass, metal work, etc. 

Freer Gallery of Art—lIn the last report it was stated that foun- 
dations had been laid for a granite structure on the Smithsonian res- 
ervation to house the Charles L. Freer collection. Though sonie de- 
lays were encountered in procuring material and labor, the construc- 
tion of this building has progressed during the year as rapidly as 
could be expected. 

During the year Mr. Freer increased nis collections by 928 addi- 
tions, of which 20 are paintings by the American artists, Whistler, 
Tryon, Dewing, Melchers, Metcalf, Sargeant, and Brush; while the 
oriental objects, numbering 908, consist of paintings, pottery, fabrics, 
jewelry, and objects of jade, bronze, wood, stone. glass, and lacquer. 
The collection now numbers 6,200 items. 

National Gallery of Art—Among the most recent accessions to the 
gallery may be mentioned a collection of 12 paintings, 12 miniatures, 
9 ivory carvings, a Limoges enamel, a marble bust, a bronze statue, 
and 140 miscellaneous objects, received by bequest of Mrs. Mary 
Houston Eddy, of Washington; to be known as “The A. R. and 
H. M. Eddy. Donation.” 

In addition to many other objects of art, there was also received a 
series of architectural drawings by Charles Mason Remey, being pre- 
liminary designs showing various treatments in different styles of 


116 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


architecture of the proposed Bahai Temple for Chicago, exhibited 
during March, 1918. 

The natural history building, under normal conditions, is greatly 
overcrowded with the collections of its departments of biology, 
geology, and anthropology, and of the art gallery, nearly one-fourth 
of its space being given over to art in its various forms. The need 
of considering the erection of a building exclusively for the National 
Gallery of Art is pressing and should receive early attention. The 
gallery has already failed to acquire many rich gifts of art works 
because of the impossibility of caring for them in the present build- 
ings, and because of this unpreparedness art treasures of great worth, 
well within its reach, have gone elsewhere. 

Death of William T. Evans—In this connection, I regret to an- 
nounce the death, on November 25, 1918, at Glen Ridge, N. J., of Mr. 
William T. Evans, whose generous gifts to the National Gallery of 
Art have been reported. 

In 1907, when the project of a national gallery of art had been 
definitely launched, Mr. Evans was among the first to recognize its 
importance, and in that year gave 54 paintings, representing the best 
of American artists. Since then he has added to his gift from time 
to time until at present his collection numbers 150 paintings, 115 
wood engravings, and 1 fine etching, which are valued at approxi- 
mately $1,000,000. 

War activities —During the trying conditions that have prevailed 
in the United States since it entered the war the National Museum 
has demonstrated its value as a national asset in many ways. Mem- 
bers of its staff of experts, its great collections, its laboratories, and 
all the information in its possession have been placed unreservedly 
at the service of the executive departments and other Government 
agencies, and have been frequently used by a number of them. Its 
exhibition halls have been closed to visitors and turned into office 
quarters for over 5,000 employees of one of the important war 
bureaus of the Government—the Bureau of War Risk Insurance. 
Facilities for the comfort and recreation of officers and men stationed 
in the vicinity and drilling on the Mall have been provided in the 
Smithsonian Building, and the reading rooms of the libraries have 
been equipped with tables and writing materials for all men in 
uniform. The Department of Geology has been frequently called 
upon to furnish materials for experimental work. A single call em- 
braced 27 varieties of minerals. At the request of the National Re- 
search Council, the head curator of this department has taken over 
the entire work of securing optical quartz for the needs of the United 
States and Great Britain. 

The Division of Mineral Technology has concentrated its activities 
for the year upon the interrelationships and consequent interpend- 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. BET 


ence existing in the industries sustained by mineral resources. In 
addition to instructive exhibits the curator and his assistants have 
furnished a large amount of information, including suggestions for 
insuring a sustained source of oil, and for the systematic assemblage 
of industrial data as a basis for reconstructional work in man power. 

The Division of Physical Anthropology has furnished information 
on racial questions, particularly relating to the Balkans. 

The curator of the Division of Textiles, having charge of food 
and animal products, cooperated with the Food Administration in 
planning graphic exhibits for use throughout the country on the 
subject of conservation. He was also appointed exhibits director in 
the District of Columbia and served as chairman of the campaign 
committee to carry out food conservation in the District. Inciden- 
tally he has prepared and placed on exhibition in the National Mu- 
seum an instructive exhibit of foods. Information was also fur- 
nished by him to the United States Shipping Board on raw com- 
modities, and assistance in working out a system for classifying 
commercial data on vegetable fats and oils. 

Other geological and biological problems arising in gas warfare, 
peat investigations, questions in connection with the construction 
of concrete ships and similar problems were also undertaken. As 
an illustration of the character of the work done by our experts, the 
curator of marine invertebrates demonstrated that the ordinary 
garden slug (which is abundant in Europe) possessed ideal qualifi- 
cations for detecting poisonous gases, which information was cabled 
to our Army and the Allies. He also assisted in securing satisfactory 
fillers for gas filters. 

The Museum photographer has rendered valuable assistance in 
connection with the organization of laboratories in the War and 
Navy Departments and also in confidential matters. 

Since the war commenced 26 employees of the Museum have been 
granted furloughs to enter the military and naval service of the 
country. 

War Musewm.—The Smithsonian Institution, through the Museum 
administration and with the aid and cooperation of other Govern- 
ment departments, is undertaking to assemble, for permanent exhi- 
bition and preservation for the benefit of the public, a series of objects 
graphically illustrating the military and naval activities of the coun- 
tries engaged in the present great war. This collection, when com- 
pleted, will constitute an invaluable historical record of the war as 
shown by objects connected directly with the conflict, and, in addition 
to the military and naval features of the struggle, will represent cer- 
tain economic phases of the war as well. 

12573°—21——_9 


118 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


_ The collection will consist principally of the classes described be- 
low, which will, however, be expanded to cover other classes of mat- 
ter as the collection develops. The material described under the first 
10 headings pertains exclusively to the United States. 

(1) Military and naval decorations and medals, including types of 
all military decorations, medals, and badges awarded by the Govern- 
ment to officers and enlisted men of the Army and Navy for service 
prior to and during the progress of the conflict. 

(2) Military-service insignia, including all types of devices and 
designs showing the different ranks and branches of the military 
service. 

(3) Individual military equipment, including the equipment of 
the individual enlisted man of the various branches of the military 
service, such as clothing, arms, and other paraphernalia. 

(4) General military equipment, including machine guns and other 
objects intrusted to the military squads and organizations rather than 
to individual soldiers. This class of material includes other objects 
relating to the air service, such as airplanes of ail types, and acces- 
sories. 

(5) Naval-service insignia, including types of all devices showing 
the various ranks and branches of the naval service. 

(6) Individual naval equipment, including the clothing and equip- 
ment furnished to the individual enlisted man of the Navy. 

(7) General naval equipment, including models of ships, naval 
guns, and types of other war paraphernalia employed by the Navy. 

(8) Mementoes of persons, including relics of noted individuals 
serving with the Army or the Navy or otherwise identified with the 
war activities. 

(9) Mementoes of events, including relics of events of special note 
occurring during the war. 

(10) Pictorial and library material, including pictures, maps, 
books, pamphlets, and other objects of the same character relating to 
the progress of the war. A nearly complete series of all Liberty loan 
posters is already in the possession of the Museum, and a complete 
set of the posters issued by the Navy Department has been promised 
by that department. 

(11) Allied war material, including matters relating to all the 
classes of material described above as pertaining to the United States. 

(12) Enemy countries’ war material, including material relating 
to all of the first 10 classes of material described above as pertaining 
to the United States. 

The initial installation of the war material already received has 
been made in a suitable section of the Museum amid dignified and 
proper surroundings, with an adequate allowance of space and in 
appropriate cases, 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 119 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


Field work.—One of the most important results of field work by 
the Bureau of American Ethnology during the past year was the 
investigation of little-known prehistoric towers, castles, and great 
houses in southwestern Colorado. In conjunction with the Depart- 
ment of the Interior, the Smithsonian Institution has been engaged 
for a decade in the excavation and repair of large ruins situated on 
the Mesa Verde National Park. The educational value of this work 
can hardly be overestimated, and the records show that in the last 
few years about 2,500 persons visited the locality annually to see 
these remains of prehistoric ruins in our Southwestern States. 

In his field work last summer Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, Chief of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology, investigated equally instructive 
groups of ruins in the valleys in the neighborhood of the Mesa Verde 
Park and found there many well-preserved buildings of which little 
has hitherto been known. 


NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, 


Attendance record—tThe attendance at the park for the year end- 
ing June 30, 1918, exceeded all previous records, reaching a total of 
1,593,227-—a daily average of 4,365. This total is 436,117 over that 
of 1916, the record year up to this time. 

Recent accesstons.—The first specimens of the Florida bear (Ursus 
floridanus) ever shown in the park were received August 21. Other 
accessions of importance are a fine capybara, the largest of existing 
rodents, from the delta of the Orinoco River, Venezuela; a pair of 
American prong-horned antelopes received in exchange; and a pair 
of Philippine water buffaloes. 

The secretary added that as an evidence of the good feeling for 
the United States felt by the Canadians, some fine specimens of 
Canadian mountain sheep had been sent to the park. He spoke 
also of efforts being made to secure specimens of the young Sumatran 
elephant. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 


Solar eclipse expedition—Messrs. L. B. Aldrich and Andrew 
Kramer, assisted by a volunteer, the Rev. Clarence Woodman, C. 
S. P., of Berkeley, Calif., observed the total solar eclipse of June 
8, 1918, at Lakin, Kans. The entire program, including observations 
of times of contact, photography of the solar corona, and measure- 
ments of the brightness of the sky throughout the afternoon and eve- 
ning, was successfully carried out. 

Mount Wilson expedition—Mr. Aldrich continued the usual ob- 
servations on Mount Wilson, Calif. In addition, in cooperation with 
the Army balloon school at Arcadia, Calif., he made novel measure- 


120 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ments of cloud reflection by aid of the pyranometer. A military 
balloon was sent up through the layer of cloud to about 2,800 feet, 
and over 100 determinations were made. The results were compared 
with direct measurements of the intensity of total sun and sky 
radiation shining down from above and showed that 78 per cent 
of the radiation falling upon a sheet of cloud is reflected back 
toward space. 

Chilean expedition—In June the Hodgkins fund solar expedition, 
under A. F. Moore, director, with L. H. Abbot as assistant, reached 
station at Calama, Chile, 7,500 feet high, on the eastern edge of the 
nitrate desert, believed to be the most cloudless region in the world. 
The expedition is equipped in the best possible manner to observe 
the variations of the sun, and its purpose is to observe the solar 
changes daily (if possible) for several years, thus acquiring a secure 
basis for studying the possibility of weather forecasting by aid of 
solar work. 

War activities —Dr. Abbot was authorized by the secretary soon 
after war was declared by the United States to consider himself 
free to aid in the fullest degree in war work without further con- 
sultation. During this time he has been almost solely engaged in 
war investigations, several of which have led to valuable results, and 
some of which are still in progress. 


EXPEDITIONS. 


Celebes expedition.—During the past year Mr. H. C. Raven has 
continued his work in Celebes under the auspices of Dr. W. L. Abbott, 
whose generosity in providing for this and the Borneo expeditions 
has been frequently acknowledged. Although this work was in- 
terrupted by Mr. Raven’s return to America to join the Army, it 
resulted in the bringing together of nearly 2,000 birds and mammals, 
together with an important collection of ethnological material. The 
area explored lies in the central, less-known part of the island. 
Among the noteworthy mammals obtained are the Anos, or dwarf 
buffalo, peculiar to the island and not hitherto represented in the 
National Museum by a wild-killed specimen, and a very remark- 
able fruit bat previously known from a single specimen taken in 
the Philippines. 

Collins-Garner Kongo expedition—War conditions have immo- 
bilized this expedition in the Fernan Vas region. Our representa- 
tive, Mr. C. R. W. Aschemeier, however, has been active and success- 
ful. He has made numerous shipments of specimens, some of which 
have not yet arrived. Among his important captures may be men- 
tioned an elephant, a gorilla, several chimpanzees, and numerous 
buffaloes and antelopes, all representing West African forms prac- 
tically or entirely new to the Museum. 


GENERAL APPENDIX 


TO THE 


SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1919 


121 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The object of the Genrrat Arrrenpix to the Annual Report of the 
Smithsonian Institution is to furnish brief accounts of scientific dis- 
covery in particular directions; reports of investigations made by 
collaborators of the Institution; and memoirs of a general character 
or on special topics that are of interest or value to the numerous 
correspondents of the Institution. 

Tt has been a prominent object of the Board of Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution, from a very early date, to enrich the annual 
report required of them by law with memoirs illustrating the more 
remarkable and important developments in physical and biological 
discovery, as well as showing the general character of the operations 
of the Institution; and this purpose has, during the greater part of 
its history, been carried out largely by the publication of such papers 
as would possess an interest to all attracted by scientific progress. 

In 1880 the Secretary, induced in part by the discontinuance of an 
annual summary of progress which for 30 years previous had been 
issued by well-known private publishing firms, had prepared by com- 
petent collaborators a series of abstracts, showing concisely the 
prominent features of recent scientific progress in astronomy, geol- 
ogy, meteorology, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, 
and anthropology. This latter plan was continued, though not alto- 
gether satisfactorily, down to and including the year 1888. 

In the report for 1889 a return was made to the earlier method of 
presenting a miscellaneous selection of papers (some of them origi- 
nal) embracing a considerable range of scientific investigation and 
discussion. This method has been continued in the present report 
for 1919. 

122 


MODERN THEORIES OF THE SPIRAL NEBULAE? 


By HeEser D. CurTIs, 
Director, Allegheny Observatory. 


In one sense that theory of the spiral nebulae to which many lines 
of recently obtained evidence are pointing can not be said to be a 
modern theory. There are few modern concepts which have not been 
explicitly or implicitly put forward as hypotheses or suggestions 
long before they were actually substantiated by evidence. 

The history of scientific discovery affords many instances where 
men with some strange gift of intuition have looked ahead from 
meager data, and have glimpsed or guessed truths which have been 
fully verified only after the lapse of decades or centuries. Herschel 
was such a fortunate genius. From the proper motions of a very 
few stars he determined the direction of the sun’s movement nearly 
as accurately, due to a very happy selection of stars for the purpose, 
as far more elaborate modern investigations. He noticed that the 
star clusters which appeared nebulous in texture in smaller tele- 
scopes and with lower powers, were resolved into stars with larger 
instruments and higher powers. From this he argued that all the 
nebulae could be resolved into stars by the application of sufficient 
magnifying power, and that the nebulae were, in effect, separate 
universes, a theory which had been earlier suggested on purely 
hypothetical or philosophical grounds by Wright, Lambert, and 
Kant. From their appearance in the telescope he, again with almost 
uncanny prescience, excepted a few as definitely gaseous and irre- 
solvable. 

This view held sway for many years; then came the results of 
' spectroscopic analysis, showing that many nebulae (those which we 
now classify as diffuse or planetary) are of gaseous constitution and 
can not be resolved into stars. The spiral nebulae, although showing 
a different type of spectrum, were in most theories tacitly included 
with the known gaseous nebulae. 

1 Abstract of a lecture given on Mar. 15, 1919, at a joint meeting of the Washington 
Academy of Sciences and the Philosophical Society of Washington. The lecture was 


illustrated with numerous lantern slides. Reprinted by permission from the Journal of 
the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 9, No. 8, Apr. 19, 1919. 


123 


124 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


We have now, as far as the spiral nebulae are concerned, come 
back to the standpoint of Herschel’s fortunate, though not fully 
warranted deduction, and the theory to which much recent evidence 
is pointing, is that these beautiful objects are separate galaxies, or 
“island universes,” to employ the expressive and appropriate phrase 
coined by Humboldt. 

By means of direct observations on the nearer and brighter stars, 
and by the application of statistical methods to large groups of the 
fainter or more remote stars, the galaxy of stars which forms our 
own stellar universe is believed to comprise perhaps a billion suns. 
Our sun, a relatively inconspicuous unit, is situated near the center 
of figure of this galaxy. This galaxy is not even approximately 
spherical in contour, but shaped like a lens or thin watch; the actual 
dimensions are highly uncertain; Newcomb’s estimate that this 
galactic disk is about 3,000 light-years in thickness and 30,000 light- 
years in diameter is perhaps as reliable as any other. 

Of the three classes of nebulae observed, two, the diffuse nebu- 
losities and the planetary nebulae, are typically a galactic phenome- 
non as regards their apparent distribution in space, and are rarely 
found at any distance from the plane of our Milky Way. With the 
exception of certain diffuse nebulosities, whose light is apparently a 
reflection phenomenon from bright stars involved within the nebulae, 
both these types are of gaseous constitution, showing a characteristic 
bright-line spectrum. | 

Differing radically from the galactic gaseous nebulae in form 
and distribution, we find a very large number of nebulae predomi- 
nantly spiral in structure. The following salient points must be 
taken into account in any adequate theory of the spiral nebulae. 

1. In apparent size the spirals range from minute flecks, just dis- 
tinguishable on the photographic plate, to enormous spirals like 
Messier 33 and the great nebula in Andromeda, the latter of which 
covers an area four times greater than that subtended by the full 
moon. 

2. Prior to the application of photographic methods, fewer than 
10,000 nebulae of all classes had been observed visually. One of the 
first results deduced by Director Keeler from the program of nebular 
photography which he inaugurated with the Crossley reflector at 
Lick Observatory, was the fact that great numbers of small spirals 
are within reach of modern powerful reflecting telescopes. He 
estimated their total number as 120,000 early in the course of this 
program, and before plates of many regions were available. I have 
recently made a count of the small nebulae on all available regions 
taken at the Lick Observatory during the past 20 years? and 


2 Curtis, H. D., On the number of spiral nebulae, Proc, Amer. Phil. Soc, 57:513. 1918, 


SPIRAL NEBULAE—OCURTIS. 125 


from these counts estimate that there are at least 700,000 spiral 
nebulae accessible with large reflectors. 

3. The most anomalous and inexplicable feature of the spiral 
nebulae is found in their peculiar distribution. They show an ap- 
parent abhorrence for our galaxy of stars, being found in greatest 
numbers around the poles of our galaxy. In my counts I found an 
approximate density of distribution as follows: 


Galactic latitude +- 45° to + 90°____________- 34 per square degree. 
Gatichec latitude:-49 tO — Olin SRN aa 28 per square degree. 
Galactic latitude + 30° to + 45° and —30° to— 45°____24 per square degree. 
Galactic latitude — 30° to + 30°__-__-ns) bee 7 per square degree. 


No spiral has as yet been found actually within the structure of the 
Milky Way. We have doubled and trebled our exposures in regions 
near the galactic plane in the hope of finding fainter spirals in such 
areas, but thus far without results. The outstanding feature of the 
space distribution of the spirals is, then, that they are found in great- 
est profusion where the stars are fewest, and do not occur where the 
stars are most numerous. This distribution may be illustrated 
graphically as follows: 


THE FACTOR OF SPACE DISTRIBUTION. 


400,000 + Spiral nebulae 


Our own stellar universe 
is shaped like a thin lens, and is perhaps 
3,000 by 30,000 light-years in extent. In this 
space occur nearly all the stars, nearly all the new stars, nearly 
all the variable stars, most of the diffuse and 
planetary nebulae, ete., but no spzral 
nebulae. 


s 


300,000 + Spiral nebulae. 


126 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


4, The spectrum of the spirals is practically the same as that given 
by a star cluster, showing a continuous spectrum broken by absorp- 
tion lines. A few spirals show bright-line spectra in addition. 

5. The space-velocities of the various classes of celestial objects are 
summarized in the following short table; 


THE FACTOR OF SPACE VELOCITY. 


1. The diffuse nebulae. 
Velocities low. 
2. The stars. 
Velocities vary with spectral type. 
Class B stars: Average speeds 8 miles per second. 
Class A stars: Average speeds 14 miles per second. 
Class F stars: Average speeds 18 miles per second. 
Class G stars: Average speeds 19 miles per second. 
Class K stars: Average speeds 21 miles per second. 
Class M stars: Average speeds 21 miles per second. 
3. The star clusters. 
Velocities about 100 miles per second, 
4, The planetary nebulae. 
Average speeds 48 miles per second. 
5. The spiral nebulae. : 
Average speeds 480 miles per second. 


The peculiar variation of the space velocity of the stars with 
spectral type may ultimately prove to be a function of relative mass. 
The radial velocities of but few spirals have been determined to date; 
future work may change the value given, but it seems certain that it 
will remain very high. 

It will be seen at once that, with regard to this important criterion 
of space velocity, the spiral nebulae are very distinctly in a class 
apart. It seems impossible to place them at any point in a coherent 
scheme of stellar evolution. We can not bridge the gap involved in 
postulating bodies of such enormous space velocities either as a point 
of stellar origin, or as a final evolution product. 

On the older theory that the spirals are a part of our own galaxy, 
it is impossible to harmonize certain features of the data thus far 
presented. If this theory is true, their grouping near the galactic 
poles, inasmuch as all evidence points to a flattened or disk form for 
our galaxy, would indicate that they are relatively close to us. In 
that event, we should inevitably have detected in this class of objects 
proper motions of the same order of magnitude as those found for the 
stars at corresponding distances. Such proper motions are the more 
to be expected in view of the fact that the average space velocity of 
the spirals is about 30 times that of the stars. I have repeated all the 


SPIRAL NEBULAE—CURTIS. 127 


earlier plates of the Keeler nebular program, and was able to find no 
certain evidence of either translation or rotation in these objects in 
an average time interval of 13 years.’ Their form, and the evidence 
of the spectroscope, indicate, however, that they are in rotation. 
Knowing that their space velocities are high, the failure to detect 
any certain evidence of cross motion is an indication that these objects 
must be very remote. 

Even if the spiral is not a stage in stellar evolution, but a class 
apart, is it still possible to assume that they are, notwithstanding, an 
integral part of our own stellar universe, sporadic manifestations of 
an unknown line of evolutionary development, driven off in some 
mysterious manner from the regions of greatest star density? 

A relationship between two classes of objects may be one of avoid- 
ance just as logically as one of contiguity. It has been argued that 
the absolute avoidance which the spirals manifest for the galaxy of 
the stars shows incontrovertibly that they must, by reason of this 
very relationship of avoidance, be an integral feature of our galaxy. 
This argument has proved irresistible to many, among others to so 
keen a thinker as Herbert Spencer, who wrote: 


In that zone of celestial space where stars are excessively abundant nebulae 
are rare; while in the two opposite celestial spaces that are furthest removed 
from this zone nebulae are abundant * * * Can this be mere coincidence? 
When to the fact that the general mass of the nebulae are antithetical in posi- 
tion to the general mass of the stars, we add the fact that local regions of 
nebulae are regions where stars are scarce * * * does not the proof of a 
physical connection become overwhelming? 


It must be admitted that a distribution, which has placed three- 
quarters of a million objects around the poles of our galaxy, would 
be against all probability for a class of objects which would be ex- 
pected to be arranged at random, unless it can be shown that this 
peculiar grouping is only apparent, and due to some phenomenon in 
our own galaxy. This point will be reverted to later. 

It has been shown that the factors of space velocity and space 
distribution separate the spirals very clearly from the stars of our 
galaxy; from these facts alone and from the evidence of the spectro- 
scope the island-universe theory is given a certain measure of 
credibility. 

Another line of evidence has been developed within the past two 
years which adds further support to the island-universe theory 
of the spiral nebulae. 


8 Curtis, H. D. The proper motion of the nebulae, Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacific 27: 214. 
1915. 


128 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
NEW STARS. 


Within historical times some 27 new stars have suddenly flashed 
out in the heavens. Some have been of interest only to the astrono- 
mer; others, like that of last June, have rivaled Sirius in brilliancy. 
All have shown the same general history, suddenly increasing in 
light ten thousandfold or more, and then gradually, but still rela- 
tively rapidly, sinking into obscurity again. They are a very inter- 
esting class, nor has astronomy as yet been able to give any universally 
accepted explanation of these anomalous objects. Two of these novae 
had appeared in spiral nebulae, but this fact had not been weighed 
at its true value. Within the past two years over a dozen novae 
have been found in spiral nebulae, all of them very faint, ranging 
from about the fourteenth to the nineteenth magnitudes at maxi- 
mum. Their life history, so far as we can tell from such faint 
objects, appears to be identical with that of the brighter novae. 
Now, the brighter novae of the past—that is, those which have not 
appeared in spirals—have almost invariably been a galactic phe- 
nomenon, located in or close to our Milky Way, and they have very 
evidently been a part of our own stellar system. The cogency of 
the argument will, I think, be apparent to all, although the strong 
analogy is by no means a rigid proof. If 27 novae have appeared in 
our own galaxy within the past 300 years, and if about half that 
number are found within a few years in spiral nebulae far removed 
from the galactic plane, the presumption that these spirals are them- 
selves galaxies composed of hundreds of millions of stars is a very 
probable one. 

If, moreover, we make the reasonabie assumption that the new 
stars in the spirals and the new stars in our own galaxy average 
about the same in size, mass, and absolute brightness, we can form a 
very good estimate of the probable distance of the spiral nebulae, 
regarded as island universes. Our galactic novae have averaged 
about the fifth magnitude. The new stars which have appeared in 
the spiral nebulae have averaged about the fifteenth magnitude, but it 
would appear probable that we must inevitably miss the fainter 
novae in such distant galaxies, and it is perhaps reasonable to assume 
that the average magnitude of the novae in spirals may be about 
the eighteenth, or 13 magnitudes fainter than those in our own galaxy. 
They would thus be about one hundred and sixty thousand times 
fainter than our galactic novae, and on the assumption that both 
types of novae average the same in mass, absolute luminosity, etc., the 
novae in spirals should be four hundred times farther away. We do 
not know the average distance of the new stars which have appeared 
in our own galaxy, but 10,000 light-years is perhaps a reasonable esti- 


SPIRAL NEBULAE—CURTIS. 129 


mate.* This would indicate a distance of the order of 4,000,000 light- 
years for the spiral nebulae. This is an enormous distance, but if 
these objects are galaxies like our own stellar system, such a distance 
accords well with their apparent dimensions. Our own galaxy at a 
distance of 10,000,000 light-years would be about 10 minutes of arc 
in diameter, or the size of the larger spiral nebulae. 

On such a theory a spiral structure for our own galaxy would be 
probable. Its proportions accord well with the degree of flattening 
observed in the majority of the spirals. We have very little actual 
evidence as to a spiral structure for our galaxy; the position of our 
sun relatively close to the center of figure of the galaxy and our 
ignorance of the distances of the remoter stars renders such evidence 
very difficult to obtain. A careful study of the configurations and 
star densities in the Milky Way has led Professor Easton, of Amster- 
dam, to postulate a spiral structure for our galaxy. 


4 Note added in June, 1920.—The estimate given above of 10,000 light-years as the ayver- 
age distance of the galactic novae is probably too large. Data obtained since the 
lecture was delivered now make possible another method of estimating the distance of 
the spirals, leading, however, to the same general result. 

Seventeen noyae haye appeared in the great nebula of Andromeda, the largest and pre- 
sumably the ciosest of the spirals. Sixteen of these were faint, averaging about magnitude 
17 at maximum and probably about magnitude 27 at minimum, on the assumption that 
they vary in this respect as do the galactic-novae. The seventeenth, 8S. Andromedae, was 
seventh magnitude at maximum, or 10 magnitudes brighter than the average of the 
fainter novae. 

The absolute magnitude, or absolute luminosity, of a star is that apparent magnitude 
which it would have if seen from the standard distance of 32.6 light-years, and may 
easily be found from the equation, 

Abs. magn.—=apparent magn.+7.6—5 Xlogarithm of distance, 
where the distance is expressed in light-years. Converting the apparent magnitudes of the 
16 fainter noyae into absolute magnitudes on the assumption that this spiral is 500,000 
light-years distant, the following comparison may be made with four galactic novae, whose 
distances, and hence their absolute magnitudes, are known, 


16 novae in F 
Andromeda,| 4,Stlactic 
ifat 500,000 


+ known 
light-years . 
distance. | distance. 
DSOMMUG HAC TILNOG AL IAAI sane s Sele cece em ene ene e ieee —3.9 —3.4 
Absolute magnitude at'minimum’. .-). . 99.2202. 02982% Le SME Ee 6.1 +7.2 


Though it must be admitted that the data for such a correlation are still very limited, 
a distance of 500,000 light-years is strongly indicated for the nebula of Andromeda, and, 
if the spirals are structures of roughly the same order of actual size, a distance of 
10,000,000 or more light-years would be expected for the apparently smaller spirals. 

At this distance for the nebula in Andromeda, S. Andromedae, evidently an exceptional 
nova, would have the very great absolute magnitude of —13.9. The ‘“ dispersion” of the 
novae in absolute magnitude is evidently very large, as indicated by the difference of 10 
magnitudes between S. Andromedae and the fainter novae in this spiral. An absolute 
magnitude of —14 does not seem impossible for certain exceptional novae in our own 
system. Tycho’s nova was brighter than Venus at its maximum, and if this nova was as 
close to us as 1,000 light-years, its absolute magnitude must have been about —13. 


130 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
DISTRIBUTION OF SPIRALS. 


There is still left one outstanding and unexplained problem in the 
island universe theory or any other theory of the spiral nebulae. 
Neither theory, as outlined, offers any satisfactory explanation of 
the remarkable distribution of the spirals. On the older theory, if a 
feature of our galaxy, what has driven them out to the points most 
remote from the regions of greatest star density? If, on the other 
hand, the spirals are island universes, it is against all probability that 
our own universe should have chanced to be situated about halfway 
between two great groups of island universes, and that not a single 
object of the class happens to be located in the plane of our Milky 
Way. 

There is one very common characteristic of the spirals which may 
be tentatively advanced as an explanation of the peculiar grouping 
of the spirals. 

A very considerable proportion of the spirals show indubitable 
evidence of occulting matter, lying in the plane of the greatest ex- 
tension of the spiral, generally outside the whorls, but occasionally 
between the whorls as well. This outer ring of occulting matter is 
most easily seen when the spiral is so oriented in space as to turn its 
edge toward us. But the phenomenon is also seen in spirals whose 
planes make a small, but appreciable angle with our line of sight, 
manifesting itself in such appearances as “lanes” more prominent 
on one side of the major axis of the elongated elliptical projection, 
in a greater brightness of the nebular matter on one side of this major 
axis, in a fan-shaped nuclear portion, or in various combinations of 
ehiese effects. The phenomenon is a very common one. [Illustrations 
of 78 spirals showing evidences of occulting matter in their peripheral 
equatorial regions, with a more detailed discussion of the forms ob- 
served, are now being published,’ and additional examples of the 
phenomenon are constantly being found. 

While we have as yet no definite proof of the existence of such a 
ring of occulting matter lying in our galactic plane and outside of 
the great mass of the stars of our galaxy, there is a great deal of 
evidence for such occulting matter in smaller areas in our galaxy. 
Many such dark areas are observed around certain of the diffuse 
nebulosities, or seen in projection on the background furnished by 
such nebulosities or the denser portions of the Milky Way; these ap- 
pearances seem to be actual “dark nebulae.”® The curious “rifts” 


5 Curtis, H. D., Occulting effects in spiral nebulae, Univ. Calif. Semi-Cent. Publ. (in 
press). 

6 Barnard, E. E., On the dark markings of the sky, with a catalogue of 182 such 
objects, Astrophys. Journ. 49:1, 1919; Curtis, H. D., Dark nebulae, Publ. Astron. Soc. 
Pacific 30:65, 1918, 


SPIRAL NEBULAE—CURTIS. 131 


in the Milky Way may well be ascribed, at least in part, to such 
occulting matter. 

Though we thereby run the risk of arguing in a circle, the fact 
that no spirals can be detected in our galactic plane, a natural result 
of such a ring of occulting matter, would in itself appear to lend 
some probability to the hypothesis. The peculiar distribution of the 
spiral nebulae would then be explained as due, not to an actual asym- 
metrical and improbable distribution in space, but to a cause within 
our own galaxy, assumed to be a spiral with a peripheral ring of 
occulting matter similar to that observed in a large proportion of the 
spirals. The argument that the spirals must be an integral feature 
of our own galaxy, based on a relationship of avoidance, would then 
lose its force. The explanation appears to be a possibility, even a 
strong probability, on the island universe theory, and I know of no 
other explanation, on any theory, for the observed phenomenon of 
nebular distribution about our galactic poles. 


SUMMARY. 


The spiral nebulae as island universes. 

1. On this theory it is unnecessary to attempt to coordinate the tre- 
mendous space velocities of the spirals with the thirtyfold smaller 
values found for the stars. Very high velocities have been found for 
the Magellanic Clouds, which may possibly be very irregular spirals, 
relatively close to our galaxy. 

9. There is some evidence for a spiral structure in our own galaxy. 

3. The spectrum of the majority of the spirals is practically identi- 
cal with that given by a star cluster; a spectrum of this general type 
is such as would be expected from a vast congeries of stars. 

4. If the spirals are separate universes, similar to our galaxy 
in extent and in number of component stars, we should observe 
many new stars in the spirals, closely resembling in their life history 
the 27 novae which have appeared in our own galaxy. Over a dozen 
such novae in spirals have been found, and it is probable that a 
systematic program of repetition of nebular photographs will add 
greatly to this number. A comparison of the average magnitudes of 
the novae in spirals with those of our own galaxy indicates a distance 
of the order of 10,000,000 light-years for the spirals. Our own galaxy 
at this distance would appear 10’ in diameter, the size of the larger 
spirals. 

5. A considerable proportion of the spirals show a peripheral 
equatorial ring of occulting matter. So many instances of this have 
been found that it appears to be a general though not universal char- 
acteristic of the spirals; the existence of such an outer ring of occult- 


132 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN’ INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ing matter in our own galaxy, regarded as a spiral, would furnish 
an adequate explanation of the peculiar distribution of the spirals. 
There is considerable evidence of such occulting matter in our galaxy. 

An English physicist has cleverly said that any really good theory 
brings with it more problems than it removes. It is thus with the 
island-universe theory. It is impossible to do more than to mention 
a few of these problems, with no attempt to divine those which may 
ultimately be presented to us. 

While the data are too meager as yet, several attempts have been 
made to deduce the velocity of our own galaxy within the super-gal- 
axy. It would not be surprising if the space-velocity of our galaxy, 


like those of the spirals and the Magellanic Clouds, should prove to 


be very great, hundreds of miles per second. 

Further, what are the laws which govern the forms assumed, and 
under which these spiral whorls are shaped? Are they stable struc- 
tures; are the component stars moving inward or outward? A be- 
ginning has been made by Jeans and other mathematicians on the 
dynamical problems involved in the structure of the spirals. The 
field for research is, like our subject matter, practically infinite. 


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A DETERMINATION OF THE DEFLECTION OF LIGHT BY 
THE SUN’S GRAVITATIONAL FIELD, FROM OBSERVA- 
TIONS MADE AT THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF MAY 29, 1919. 


By Sir F. W. Dyson, F. R. S., astronomer royal, Prof. A. S. Epprneton, F. R.'S., 
and Mr. C. Davipson. 


[With 1 plate. ] 
I. PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDITIONS. 


1. The purpose of the expeditions was to determine what effect, if 
any, is produced by a gravitational field on the path of a ray of 
light traversing it. Apart from possible surprises, there appeared to 
be three alternatives, which it was especially desired to discriminate 
between— 


(1) The path is uninfluenced by gravitation. 

(2) The energy or mass of light is subject to gravitation in 
the same way as ordinary matter.. If the law of gravitation is 
strictly the Newtonian law, this leads to an apparent displace- 
ment of a star close to the sun’s limb amounting to 0.87’ 
outward. 

(3) The course of a ray of light is in accordance with 
Einstein’s generalized relativity theory. This leads to an ap- 
parent displacement of a star at the limb amounting to 1.75’ 
outward. 


In either of the last two cases the displacement is inversely pro- 
portional to the distance of the star from the sun’s center, the dis- 
placement under (3) being just double the displacement under (2). 

It. may be noted that both (2) and (3) agree in. supposing that 
light is subject to gravitation in precisely the same way as ordinary 
matter. The difference is that, whereas (2) assumes the Newtonian 
law, (3) assumes Einstein’s new law of gravitation. The slight 
deviation from the Newtonian law, which on Einstein’s theory causes 

1Reprinted by permission from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of 
London, Series A, vol. 220, pp. 291-333. 

12573°—21 10 133 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Dyson and Others. 


PLATE |. 


A HALE-TONE REPRODUCTION OF ONE OF THE NEGATIVES TAKEN WITH THE 4-INCH LENS AT SOBRAL. 
‘This shows the position of the stars and, as far as possible in a reproduction of this kind, the cl:sracter of the images, as there has been no retouching. 


134 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


an excess motion of perihelion of Mercury, becomes magnified as the 
speed increases, until for the limiting velocity of light it doubles the 
curvature of the path. 

2. The displacement (2) was first suggested by Professor Einstein * 
in 1911, his argument being based on the principle of equivalence, viz, 
that a ee aaa field is indistinguishable from a spurious field 
of force produced by an acceleration of the axes of reference. But 
apart from the validity of the general principle of equivalence there 
were reasons for expecting that the electromagnetic energy of a 
beam of light would be subject to gravitation, especially when it was 
proved that the energy of radioactivity contained in uranium was 
subject to gravitation. . In 1915, however, Einstein) found that the 
general principle of equivalence necessitates a modification of the 
Newtonian law of gravitation, and that the new law leads to the 
displacement (8). 

3. The only opportunity of observing these possible deflections is 
afforded by a ray of light from a star passing near the sun. (The 
maximum deflection by Jupiter is only 0.017’”.) Evidently, the 
observation must be made during a total eclipse of the sun. 

Immediately after Einstein’s first suggestion, the matter was: taken 
up by Dr. E. Freundlich, who attempted to collect information from 
eclipse: plates already taken; but he did-not: secure sufficient material. 
At ensuing eclipses plans were made by various observers for testing 
the effect, but they. failed through cloud or other causes. After 
Einstein’s second suggestion had appeared, the Lick Observatory 
expedition attempted to observe the effect at the eclipse of 1918. The 
final results are not yet published. Some account of a preliminary 
discussion has been given,* but the eclipse was an unfavorable one, 
and from the information published the probable accidental error is 
large, so that the accuracy is insufficient to discriminate between the 
three alternatives. 

4, The results of the observations here described appear to point 
quite definitely to the third alternative, and confirm Einstein’s 
generalized relativity theory. As is well-known the theory is also 
confirmed by the motion of the perihelion of Mercury, which exceeds 
the Newtonian value by 43’’ per century—an amount practically 
identical with that deduced from Hinstein’s theory.. On the other 
hand, ‘his theory predicts a displacement to the red‘ of the Fraun- 
Bue lines on the ‘sun amounting ‘to about 0.0084 in the violet. ’ Ac- 
cording to. Doctor St. J ohn* this displacement i is not confirmed. | Tf 


2 Annalen der: Physik, Vol! KEXVy 2D. 898. 
3 Observatory, Vol. XLII, p, 298. 
\, *+Astrophysical Journal,. Vol, XLYI;: D 249. 


| DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 435 


this disagreement is to be taken as final it necessitates considerable 
modifications of Einstein’s theory, which it is outside our province to 
discuss.. But, whether or not changes are needed in other parts of 
the theory, it appears now to be established that Kinstein’s law of 
gravitation gives the true deviations from the Newtonian law both 
for the relatively slow-moving planet Mercury and for the fast- 
moving waves of light. 

It seems clear that the effect here found must be attributed to the 
sun’s gravitational field and not, for example, to refraction by 
coronal matter. In order to produce the observed effect by refraction, 
the sun must be surrounded by material of refractive index 
1+0.00000414/r, where 7 is the distance from the center in terms of 
the sun’s radius. At a height of one radius above the surface the 
necessary refractive index 1.00000212 corresponds to that of air at 
zis atmosphere, hydrogen at 5 atmosphere, or helium at 3, atmos- 
pheric pressure. Clearly a-density of this order is out of.the ques- 
tion. 

. II, PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITIONS. 


5. In March, 1917,° it was pointed out as the result of an examina- 
tion of the photographs taken with the Greenwich astrographic tele- 
scope at the eclipse of 1905 that this instrument was suitable for the 
photography of the field of stars surrounding the sun in a total 
eclipse. Attention was also drawn to the importance of observing 
the eclipse of May 29, 1919, as this afforded a specially favorable 
opportunity owing to the unusual number of bright stars in the 
field, such as would not occur again for many years. 

With weather conditions as good as those at Sfax in the 1905 
eclipse—and these were by no means perfect—it was anticipated that 
12 stars would be shown. ‘Their positions are indicated in the dia-- 
gram on page 136, on which is also marked on the same scale the 
outline of a 16 by 16 centimeter plate (used with the astrographic 
telescopes of 3.43 meters focal length) and a 10 by 8 inch plate 
(used with a 4-inch lens of 19 feet focal length). 

The following table gives the photographic magnitudes and stand- 
ard coordinates of the stars, and the gravitational displacements 
in # and y calculated on the assumption of a radial displacement 


il 15 , where ” is the distance from the sun’s center and 7, the 


radius re the sun. 


5 Monthly Notices, R. A. S., LXXVII,-p. 445, 


136 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Gravitational displacement. 


Coons nan er WH 


et et ee 
on & © 


Sun’s center (Sobral)......-.-.-.|.....-.-- 
Sun’s center (Principe)........--|...-.---- 


BiD.om yen Sans awa 
PiAZ2i HVS B2 vce «si Bae setae Seay 


oe al iia ee Oe ie 
B.D Borg I ee AO Ot 
Piaza, TV}; SIO) aes 


TasieE I. 
Coordinates. 
Photog Unit=50’. 
mag. 
Ze y- 

m. 

+0. 436 | —0. 263 

+0. 553 | —0. 246 
7.0 +0. 026 | —0. 200 
5.8 +1.079 | —0. 328 
5.5 +0. 348 | +0. 360 
4.5 | +0.334 | 40.472 
6.0° | —0.160 | —1.107 
4.5 +0.587 | +1.099 
7.0 —0. 707 | —0. 864 
7.0 —0. 727 | —1.040 
7.0 —0. 483 | —1.303 
bye +0. 860 | +1.321 
RG) —1. 261 | —0.160 
5.5 —1.311 | —0.918 
8.0 +0. 089 | +1.007 


eee ee ees ees eee 


Sobral. 

i Y. 

ur wr 
—1.31 | +0.20 
+0.85 | —0.09 
—0.12| +0.87 
—0.10} +0.73 
—0.31 | .—0. 43 
+0.04 | +0.40 
—0.38 | —0.20 
—0.33.| —0.22 
—0.26 | —0.30 
+0.09 | +0.32 
—0.32 | +0.02 
—0.28 | —0.10 
—0.17 | +0.40 


Principe. 

z. y. 

LZ ” 
—1.04 | +0.09 
+1.02} —0.16 
—0.28 | +0. 81 
—0.21} +0. 70 
—0.31 | —0.38 
+0.01 | .+0.41 
=0)35)|  —0: 7 
—0.29 | —0.20 
—0.26 | —0.27 
+0.07 | +0.34 
—0.30}] +0.01 
—0.26} —0.09 
—0.14] +0.39 


It may be noted that No, 1 is lost in the corona on the photographs 


taken at Sobral. 


some of the astrographic plates at Sobral. 


The star, No. 13, of magnitude 8.0, is shown on 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 137 


6. The track of the eclipse runs from North Brazil across the At- 
lantic, skirting the African coast near Cape Palmas, passing through 
the Island of Principe, then across Africa to the western shores of 
Lake Tanganyika. Inquiry as to the suitable sites and probable 
weather conditions was kindly made by Mr. Hinks. It appeared 
that a station in North Brazil, the Island of Principe, and’a station 
on the west of Lake Tanganyika were possible. A station near 
Cape Palmas did not seem desirable from the meteorological re- 
ports though, as the event proved, the eclipse was observed in a 
cloudless sky by Professor Bauer, who was there on an expedition 
to observe magnetic effects. At the station at Tanganyika it was 
thought the sun was at too low an altitude for observations of this 
character, owing to the large displacements which would be caused 
by refraction. 

A circular received from Doctor Morize, the director of the ob- 
servatory at Rio, stated that Sobral was the mosi suitable station in 
North Brazil and gave copious information of the meteorological con- 
ditions, mode of access, etc. 

7. Acting on this information the joint permanent eclipse com- 
mittee at a meeting on November 10, 1917, decided, if possible, to 
send expeditions to Sobral in North Brazil, and to the Island of 
Principe.. Application was made to the government grant committee 
for £100 for instruments and £1,000 for the expedition, and a subcom. 
mittee consisting of Sir F. W. Dyson, Professor Eddington, Profes- 
sor Fowler, and Professor Turner was appointed to make arrange- 
ments for the expeditions. This subcommittee met in May and June, 
1918, and made provisional arrangements for Professor Eddington 
and Mr. Cottingham to take the object glass of the Oxford astro- 
graphic telescope to Principe, and Mr. Davidson and Father Cortie 
to take the object glass of the Greenwich astrographic telescope to 
Sobral. It was arranged for the clocks and mechanism of the ccelo- 
stats to be overhauled by Mr. Cottingham. Preliminary inquiries 
were also set on foot as to shipping facilities, from which it appeared 
very doubtful whether the expeditions could be carried through. 

Conditions had changed materially in November, 1918, and at a 
meeting of the subcommittee on November 8, it was arranged to as. 
semble the instruments at Greenwich, and make necessary arrange- 
ments with all speed for the observers to leave England by the end 
of February, 1919. In addition to the astrographic object glasses fed 
by 16-inch celostats, Father Cortie suggested to the subcommittee 
the use of the 4-inch telescope of 19-feet focus, which he had used 
at Hernosand, Sweden, in 1914, in conjunction with an 8-inch ccelo- 
stat, the property of the Royal Irish Academy. It was arranged to 


138 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN, INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ask for the loan of these instruments. As Father Cortie fotind it 
impossible to spare the necessary time for the| expedition his place 
was taken by Doctor Crommelin of the Royal Observatory... 

8. In November, 1918, the only workman available at the Royal 
Observatory was the mechanic, the carpenter not having been re 
leased from military service. In these circumstances Mr. Bowen, 
the civil engineer at the Royal Naval College, was consulted. He 
kindly undertook the construction of frame huts covered with canvas, 
which could be easily packed and readily put together.. These were 
generally similar to those used in previous expeditions from the Royal 
Observatory. (See Monthly Notices, Vol. LVIL., p. 101.) He also 
lent the services of a joiner who worked at the observatory on the 
woodwork of the instruments. 

It was found possible to obtain steel tubes for the astrographic ob- 
jectives. These were, for convenience of carriage, made in two sec- 
tions which could be bolted together.. The tubes were provided with 
flanges at each end, the objective being attached to one of these, and 
a wooden breech piece to the other. In the breech piece suitable pro- 
vision was made for the focusing and squaring on of the plates. The 
plate holders were of a simple construction, permitting the plate to 
be pushed into contact with three metal tilting screws on the breech 
piece thus insuring a constancy of focal plane. Eighteen plate-car- 
riers were obtained for each of the astrographic telescopes, made 
according to a pattern supplied. 

With the 4-inch lens Father Cortie lent the square wooden tube nase 
by him in 1914. This was modified at the breech end to secure greater 
rigidity and constancy of focus. 

It was designed for dark slides carrying 10 by 8-inch plates, and 
four of these, carrying eight plates, were lent with the telescope. The 
desirability of using larger plates was considered, but the time at 
disposal to make the necessary alterations was insufficient. 

The 16-inch ccelostats which had been overhauled by Mr. Cotting- 
ham were mounted and tested as far as the unfavorable weather con- 
ditions of February, 1919, would permit. The 8-inch ccelostat was 
constructed for these latitudes. To make it serviceable near the equa- 
tor a strong wooden wedge was made on which the ccelostat was 
bolted. 

The 8-inch mirror was silvered at the observatory, but owing to 
lack of facilities for maintaining a uniform temperature approach- 
ing 60° F. in the wintry weather of February, the larger mirrors were 
sent away to be silvered. 

Photographic plates, suitably packed in hermetically sealed tin 
boxes, were obtained from the Ilford and Imperial Cos, The Ilford 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—-DYSON AND OTHERS. | 139 


plates employed were Special, Rapid and Empress, and those of the 
Imperial Co., Special Sensitive, Sovereign, and Ordinary. 

The instruments were carefully packed and sent to Liverpool a 
week in advance, with the exception of the objectives... These: were 
packed in cases inside hampers and remained under the personal care 
of the observers, who embarked on the Anselm on March 8, 


Ill. THE EXPEDITION TO SOBRAL, 
[Observers, Dr. A. C. D. Crommelin and Mr. C. Davidson.] 


9. Sobral is the second town of the State of Ceara, in the north 
of Brazil. Its geographical coordinates are: Longitude 2h. 41m. 25s. 
west; latitude 3° 41’ 33’’ south; altitude 230 feet. Its climate is 
dry and though hot not unhealthy. 

The expedition reached Para on the Anselm on March 23. ‘There 
was a choice of proceeding immediately to Sobral or waiting for 
some weeks. It was considered undesirable to go there before we 
heard from Doctor Morize what arrangements were being made, so 
we reported our arrival to him by telegram and decided to await his 
reply. As we:had thus some time on our hands we continued the 
voyage to Manaos in the Anselm, returning to Para on April 8. 

By the courtesy of the Brazilian Government our heavy baggage 
was passed through the customs without examination and we con- 
tinued our journey to Sobral, leaving Para on April 24 by the steamer 
Fortaleza and arriving at Camocim on April 29.. Here we were met 
by Mr. John Nicolau, who had been instructed to assist us with our 
baggage through to Sobral. We proceeded from Camocim to Sobral 
by train on April 30, our baggage following the next day. 

We were met at Sobral station by representatives of both the 
civil and ecclesiastical authorities, headed respectively by Dr. Jacome 
d’Oliveira, the prefect, and Monsignor Ferreira, and conducted to 
the house which had been placed at our disposal by the kindness 
of its owner, Col. Vicente Saboya, the deputy for Sobral. We were 
joined there nine days later by the Washington (Carnegie) Eclipse 
Commission, consisting of Messrs. Daniel Wise and Andrew Thom- 
son. 

We are greatly indebted to Dr. Leocadio Araujo, of the State 
Ministry of Agriculture, who had been deputed to interpret for us 
and to assist us in our preparations. His services were invaluable, 
and contributed greatly to our success, as also to our well-being dur- 
ing our stay. 

10. A convenient site for the eclipse station offered itself just in 
front of the house; this was the race course of the Jockey Club, 
and was provided with a covered grand stand, which we found 


140 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


most convenient for unpacking and storage and in the preparatory 
work. We laid down a meridian line, after which brick piers were 
constructed for the ccelostats and for the steel tube of the astro- 
graphic telescope. Whilst this was in progress the huts were being 
erected. 

The pier of the small celostat was constructed so as to leave a 
clear space in the middle of one end for the fall of the weight, 
which was thus below the driving barrel of the clock. By continuing 
the hole below the foundations of the pier, space was provided for 
a fall of the weight permitting a run of 25 minutes. In the case 
of the 16-inch celostat, the clock was mounted on the top of a long 
wooden trunk, nearly 4 feet in length, which was placed on end, 
and sunk in the earth to a depth of about 2 feet. The weight 
descended inside the trunk directly from the driving barrel, and had 
space for a continuous run of over half an hour. 

The 16-inch ccelostat had free adjustment for all latitudes; but 
the 8-inch one, constructed for European latitudes, was mounted 
on a wooden base, inclined at an angle of about 40°, constructed 
before leaving Greenwich. The clock had to be separated from the 
colostat, mounted on a wooden base and reversed, to adjust to the 
Southern Hemisphere. It performed very satisfactorily, and no 
elongation of the star images is shown with 28 seconds’ exposure. 

To provide for the changing declination of the sun the piers of 
the astrographic telescope were made with grooves in the top, in 
which the wooden V-supports of the tube could slide, thus allowing 
for the change of azimuth. 

The tube of the astrographic telescope was circular in section, and 
could rest in any position in the V’s; for convenience it was adjusted 
so that the directions of right ascension and declination were paral- 
lel to the sides of the plate; this involved a tilt of the plate holders 
of about 4 degrees to the horizontal. 

The 4-inch lens was taken as an auxiliary; we used the square 
wooden tube, 19 feet in length, originally used by Father Cortie at 
Hernosand in 1914, together with the 10 by 8 inch plate carriers. 
Study of the star diagram showed that seven stars could be. photo- 
graphed by turning the plate through 45°. The tube was therefore 
placed on its angle, large wooden V-supports being prepared to fit 
the tube; these rested on strong wooden trestles. 

The focusing was at first done visually on Arcturus, using an 
eyepiece fitted with a cobalt glass, after the plate supports and 
object glass had been adjusted for perpendicularity to the axis. 
A series of exposures was then made, the focus being varied slightly 
so as to cover a sufficient range. Examination of these photographs 
showed at once that there was serious astigmatism due to the figure 


_—- so. 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 141 


of the mirror of the 16-inch ccelostat. By inserting an 8-inch stop 
this was reduced to a large extent, and this stop was henceforth 
used throughout; but the defect was of such a character that it was 
clear that it would be necessary to stay at Sobral and obtain com- 
parison plates of the eclipse field in July when the sun had moved 
away. 

The focus of the 4-inch was determined in a similar manner. 
The images, though superior to those of the astrographic, were not 
quite perfect, and here again comparison plates in July were neces- 
sary. Once the focus had been decided on, the breech end was 
securely screwed up to avoid any chance of subsequent movement. 

A few check plates of the field near Arcturus were taken, but 
have not been used. 

11. The following is a summary of the meteorological conditions 
during our stay. The barometer record was interesting in that it 
showed very little change from day to day, in spite of changes in 
the type of weather; there was, however, a very well marked sem1- 
diurnal variation, with range of about 0.15 inch. The temperature 
range was fairly uniform, from a maximum of about 97° F’. toward 
3 p.m. to a minimum of about 75° at5 a.m. The relative humidity 
(as shown by a hygrograph belonging to the Brazilian Commission) 
followed the temperature closely, varying from 30 per cent in the 
afternoon to 90 per cent in the early morning. 

May is normally the last month of the rainy season at Sobral, 
but this year the rainfall was very scanty; there were a few aiter- 
noon showers, each ushered in by a violent gust of wind; and on 
May 25 there was very heavy rain, which was welcome for its 
moistening effect on the ground, the dust hitherto having been 
troublesome to the clockwork although every care had been taken 
to protect it. There was a fair amount of cloud in the mornings, 
but the afternoons and nights were clear in the majority of cases. 
Mount Meruoca, 2,700 feet high, about 6 miles to the northwest, 
was a collector of cloud, its summit being frequently veiled in mist. 
In spite of its cooler climate, the summit would thus not have been 
a suitable eclipse station, and, in fact, nothing of the total phase 
of the eclipse was seen from it. 

12. Although water was generally scarce, we were very fortunately 
situated as we enjoyed an unlimited supply of good water laid on 
at the house. This was of great benefit in the photographic opera- 
tions. Ice was unobtainable, but by the use of earthenware water- 
coolers it was possible to reduce the temperature to about 75°, and 
by working only at night or before dawn development of the plates 
was fairly easy. Formalin was used in every case to harden the 
films, and thereby minimize the chance of distortion due to the 
softening of the films by the warm solutions. 


142 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


We had provided ourselves with two brands of plates, but it had 
become apparent from. photographs taken and developed before the 
eclipse that one of these brands was unsuitable in the hot climate, 
and it was decided to use practically only one brand of plates. 

In taking the experimental photographs it. was noticed that the 
clocks and cclostats were very sensitive to wind. We had reason 
to fear strong gusts about the time of totality, such as had occurred 
in other eclipses; and as the conditions of our locality seemed to 
render them specially probable, protective wind screens were erected 
round the hut openings at every. point where it was possible without 
interfering with the field'of view. Happily dead calm prevailed at 
the critical time. Screens also protected all projecting parts of the 
telescope tubes from direct sunlight. 

The performance of the 16-inch, celostat was unsatisfactory in 
respect of driving. There was a clearly. marked oscillation of the 
images on the screen in a period of about 30 seconds. . For this reason 
exposure time was shortened,.so as to multiply the number of ex- 
posures in the hope that some would be near the stationary points. 

13. The morning of:the eclipse day was rather more cloudy than the 
average, and the proportion of cloud was estimated at ~% at the 
time of first contact, when the sun was invisible; it appeared a few 
seconds later, showing a very small encroachment of the moon, and 
there were various short, intervals of sunshine during the partial 
phase which enabled us to place the sun’s image at, its assigned posi- 
tion on the ground glass, and to give a final adjustment to the rates 
of the driving clocks. As totality approached, the proportion of 
cloud diminished, and a large clear space reached the sun about one 
minute before second contact. Warnings were given 58 seconds, 22 
seconds, and 12 seconds before second contact by observing the length 
of the disappearing crescent on the ground glass. When the crescent 
disappeared the word “ go” was called and a metronome was started 
by Doctor Leocadio, who called out every tenth beat during totality, 
and the exposure times were recorded in terms of these beats. It 
beat 320 times in 310 seconds; allowance has been made for this rate 
in the recorded times. The program arranged was carried out suc- 
cessfully, 19 plates being exposed in the astrographic telescope with 
alternate exposures of 5 and 10 seconds, and eight in the 4-inch 
camera, with a uniform exposure of 28 seconds. The region round 
the sun was free from cloud, except for an interval of about a minute 
near the middle of totality, when it. was veiled by thin cloud, which 
prevented the photography of stars, though the inner corona, re- 
mained visible to the eye and the plates exposed at this time show it 
and the large prominence excellently defined. The plates remained 
in their holders until development, which was carried out in con- 


‘(DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND: OTHERS. © 143 


venient batches during the ga hours of the following days, being 
completed by June 5. 

14. No observation of contact times was made, but it is known 
that these times were somewhat before those calculated. As the times 
recorded were reckoned from second contact, it is assumed that this 
occurred May 28, 23 hours 58 minutes 18 seconds Greenwich mean 
time. 

The details of the exposures are given in the following tables: 


Heposures with the 18-inch astrographic telescope stopped to 8 inches. 


Greenwich | Greenwich 
Het raped EXPO | plate, || Rel Sabeonett EXPO | Plate, 
* | mencement " * | mencement 4 
of exposure. : of exposure. 
d. h. m. 8. Si d, he ™, 8, bi 
1 | 28 23 58 23 5 1@) TH 295 ON aa yd Sika 
2 37 10 E 12 22 10 idhs 
3 57 5 E: 13 36 5 E: 
4 59 11 10 8. 14 51 10} S.R 
5 30 SEs 15 2 10 ty | ise Boe 
6 45 10; S.R 16 25 10) S.R. 
7129 0 0 4 SUS oeey 17 44 5 E. 
8 19 10 E 18 58 10 EK. 
9 39 5 E 19 3 18 5 O. 
10 53 10; S.R 
J 


Hzxposures with the 4-ineh telescope, 


i Greenwich 
mean time mean time 
sta at com- cae ag Plate. ee at com- cope Plate. 
“| mencement f * | mencement ; 
of exposure. of exposure. 
d. jh, mez s. Ss. d. h. m.s. Se 
1} 28 23 58 21 28| S.R. 5 | 29.0 0 56 23) S.R 
2 59 0 28) S. RB. 6 1 34 28% iS. RR. 
3 38 28 | S.R. 7 2 13 28) S.R. 
4/29 0 017 28 | S.R. 8 52 28); S.R 


In the fourth column the letter O. stands for Imperial Ordinary, E.'stands for Empress, S. stands for 
Sovereign, 8. R. stands for Ilford Special Rapid. 

With the astrographic telescope 12 stars are shown: on a number 
of plates, and seven stars on all but three (Nos. 13, 14, and 19). 
Of the eight plates taken with the 4-inch lens, seven show seven 
stars, but No. 6, which was taken through cloud, does not show any. 

The following table of temperatures, communicated by Doctor 
Morize, and converted into the Fahrenheit scale, shows how slight the 
fall was during totality, probably owing to the large amount of 
cloud in the earlier stages, which checked the usual daily rise. 


144 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Green- | mper- || GreeD- | per- Green- | mpor. || GreeD- | mor. 


wich!) ome ACHE cate Wee ree vee aie 
ean 
eter. time eter. 


d. h. m, = d. h. m. - d. h. m. : d. h.m. - 
28 22 45 82.4 |] 28 23 30 80.6 |} 29 0 15 82.0 |} 29 1 0} 83.8 
23 0 84, 2 45 82.4 30 82.4 15 | 84.2 
15 82.4 ||} 29 0 0 80. 6 45 83.1 30} 84.2 


15. On June 7, having completed the development, we left Sobral 
for Fortaleza, returning on July 9 for the purpose of securing com- 
parison plates of the eclipse field. 

Before our departure we dismounted the mirrors and driving clocks 
which were brought into the house to avoid the exposure to dust. 
The telescopes and ccelostats were left in situ. Before removing 
the mirrors we marked their position in their cells so that they could 
be replaced in exactly the same position. 

After our return to Sobral the mirrors and clocks were remounted ; 
the photography of the eclipse field was commenced on the morning 
of July 11 (civil). The difficulty of finding the field with the ccelo- 
stats was overcome by making a rough hour circle on the heads of 
the celostats out of millimeter paper. 

The following is the list of exposures made on the field for com- 
parison with the eclipse photographs: 


[The reference numbers follow the civil dates.] 


Astrographic telescope. 4-inch telescope. 


Refer- Green- | Num- Refer- Green- | Num- 
ence Date: wich | ber of | Dura- | Alti- | ence bates wich | ber of Dura- Alti- 
num- mean | expo- | tion. | tude. | num- mean | expo- } tion. | tude. 
ber. time. | sures. ber. time. | sures. 
h.m S$. < h.m 8 3 
My 4) duly 10.) 20° 5 3 a 28. 9 14, | July 13] 20 7 2 25) 32.4 
Ile 20 16 2 5 31. 1 14 20 16 2 20} 34.3 
113 20 21 1 5 32. 2 
14, | July 13] 2013 3 5 33. 7 15; | July 14! (2017 2 20} 35.4 
142 20 17 2 5 34.5 152 20 22 2 20} 36.4 
143 20 19 2 5 34.9 
15, | July 14} 2015 3 5 34.9 17, | July 16] 20 6 3 15| 34.7 
152 20 20 2 5 36. 1 172 20 24 2 15} 38.6 
153 20 23 2 5 36. 6 
li1. | July 16} 20 2 4 3 33. 8 
179 20 15 3 3 36. 6 18 | July 17| 19 57 3 20} 33.6 
173 20 23 2 3 38.3 183 20 24 2 20} 39.2 
1% 20 25 2 5 38. 8 
18, | July 17| 19 50 3 4 32.8 
182 20 1 2 4 34, 4 
183 20 20 3 4 38. 6 
18, 20 25 2 3 39.5 


J 


1 The 4-inch plate, No, 18, was taken through the glass (see sec. 17, infra) to facilitate the measurement 
and is referred to as the scale plate. 


iit DEFLECTION OF LIGHT——DYSON AND OTHERS. 145 


Thermometer readings, July 10, 74.4°; July 13, 78.7°; July 14, 
71.9°; July 16, 72.38°; July 17, 72.3°. 

By July 18. we had obtained a sufficient number of reference photo- 
graphs... Dismantling of the instruments was commenced, and. the 
packing was completed on July 21. We left Sobral on July 22, 
leaving the packing cases in the hands of Messrs. Nicolau and 
Carneiro to be forwarded at the earliest opportunity, and arrived 
at, Greenwich on August 25. 

The observers wish to record their obligations to Mr. Charles Booth 
and the officers of the Booth Line for facilitating their journeys to 
and from their station at a difficult time. 


PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN WITH THE 4-INCH OBJECT GLASS. 


16. These photographs were taken on 10 by 8 inch plates. By 
suitably mounting the camera it was made possible to obtain seven 
stars on the photographs, viz, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,10, and 11 of the table 
in section 5. Of the eight photographs taken during the eclipse 
seven gave measurable images of these stars, the other plate (No. 6) 
taken through cloud only showing a picture of the prominences. 

Plates of the same field taken under nearly similar conditions as 
regards altitude were taken on July 14, 15, 17, and 18 (civil date). 
Of these photographs, the second taken on July 14 with two ex- 
posures (referred to as 14,, and 14,,), two photographs taken on 
July 15 (referred to as 15, and 15,), two on July 17 (17, and 17,), 
and the second photograph on July 18 (18,) were measured for com- 
parison with the eclipse plates. 

17. The micrometer at the Royal Observatory is not suitable for 
the direct comparison of plates of this size. It was therefore decided 
to measure each plate by placing, film to film upon it, another pho- 
tograph of the same region reversed by being taken through the 
glass. A photograph for this purpose was taken on July 18. This 
plate is regarded merely as an intermediary between the eclipse 
plates and comparison plates and is referred to as the scale plate, 
being used simply as a scale providing points of reference. In all 
cases measurement was made through the glass of the scale plate, 
adjusted on the eclipse or comparison plate which was being meas- 
ured, so that the separation of the images on the two plates did not 
exceed one-third of a millimeter. The plates were held together by 
clips which insured contact over the whole surface. This method 
of measurement was found to be very convenient. Each plate was 
measured in two positions, being reversed through 180°, and the 
accordance of the result showed that the method of measurement was 
entirely satisfactory. 


146 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The measures, both ‘direct and reversed, were made by two meas- 
urers (Mr. Davidson and Mr. Furner),' and the means taken. 
There was ‘no sensible difference’ between the measurers, which is 
satisfactory, as it affords-evidence of the similarity “ the: images 
on the eclipse and comparison and scale plates. > 

‘The value of the micrometer screws Hae in n right ascension and 
declination) is 6.25’. i 

18. The results of the measures are as alld . 


147 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—-DYSON AND OTHERS. 


“OOUSTUOAUOD [OTJOUAY JIT IO; OATZISOd pue [[eus Aq ‘xq JO SON[eA O44 OYLU 04 JNO ToyeY OOM “SUIT OY} MOTAq WATS 6-040 *5¢¢'0— ‘00S I— siequamu ony, 1 


eS a sa a Ae ae ee a ee Sg a ee eae me pe ea ne ee ray 


GAs ae COS 
geeT— | 491 T— 
Ot 2 | 700 Tee 
glpI— | SoLT— 
met—  |:s.t T= 
pp t— | S91 T— 
BerI— | SerT— 
elet— | est 1— 
J f 
Ag “Iq 


TOT | oset— 4} pep-T— 
gic t+ ~| 606° — | 9¢¢°1— 
oue'T+ | se0'T— | $zPI— 
e9gT+ . | ec0'T— ~ | gue-1— 
Gre T+ 710 T= ets 
peet+ | te0oT— | 96¢1— 
19T‘T+ | c20T— | g20°1- 
abet | ogeI— | e20-1— 
Lf d a 
“oq. Ag Burg 
aT Ty 


G&S “IT — 00 ‘I— REL? eS 00S *T— 
99T ‘T— oso G68° + 892 — 
96° — i ea 610 °E+ 028 * — 
6 = 8&3 = 7 i a 888° — 
68° — LOB = est ‘T+ O10 *I— 
056° = 466° — Pl t+ 820 “T— 
6gé “T— 6ST “T— TIT i | PAY Gal Bom 
Sol ‘T— C86 “T— $96 0+ 9SF “T— 
a 4 L L 
‘lid BUF GE ‘ig “2 
“TITA 


TIA] 


198° + 
SE6 °F S66° + 
6IL T+ £98" -- 
O&t T+ 864° + 
b&S “T+ S82" + 
291 °T-+- IeZ + 
198° 89F° + 
026 ‘0+ 907 0+ 
4 ue 
Aig "tq 
“A 


P68" = 


Tr6* + 
Teg° + 
pos" + 
g6g° + 
pos° + 
gee" + 
0g8 0+ 


069° + 


Po 
eh" + 
Pigsmate 
GSLs 
GGL* +r 
269° + 
GCL “O-- + 


096° + 


690 °T-++ 
096° + 
G10 E+ 
PIL T+ 
980 °T-++ 
Geo Tr 
8061+ 


668+ | OLTT+ || 486" + | 906° — 
G96. | 6841+ 5) COrt+ | eett— 
GPE T+ | Let || 466% + | OFT — 
Wott. | Cle ts: 4) 6+ | Hee 
HOVT+ | GOST+ |] POT. | €10— 
Sel T+ | Gre T+ | O€<OT+ | 9er™— 
O68 + NENT + || COG, |. p0eF 
S60 T+ | OLTT+ | 296°0+ |-60T°0— 
f f J f 
FG hg “rq ig 
7h CFL 


“aqpos—saqnj,d uosiuodwmog 


9ee°I+ | 00g° + 
Settee ah LBL 
ocs't+ | pee" + 
poco 'T+ | p6g° +~ 
28¢°I+ | Tog: + 
poo T+ | 6pg* + 
902 T+ | ¢g9° + 
ses‘T+ | g9¢°0+ 
af JL 
Ag tq 
“AI 


78° + 00g* + PoE T— 00S *I— 
Po6* + 993 “I+ 610 “I— tt of Ae me 
BELG Doe LST I+ 8h6° — 666° — 
L165 T+ 2g0 “T+ (496 ag G10 *T— 
PPS I+ 896° + 698° — 620 *T— 
ChE Te e6Z6° + br6" — $90 °T— 
cys > ft 9GL° + CIE *T— 166 “I — 
996 "0+ G6 ‘0+ oS “T— OTP *T— 
L or i f 
hig ROG ig “20 
‘TH TT 


A 


601° + 


906° + 


PoL* + 


}OST* +: 


PE cet 
8&E = — 
pss 0— 


"78S JO “ON 


{ 


-aypos—saqnjd asduyoq— J] FIavy, 


"IBIS JO ‘ON | 


252 4 


3 


148 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


19. The values of Dx and Dy were equated to expressions of the 
form 


az + by +¢+ aH, (= Dz) 


da + ey + f+ ak, (= Dy), 


and 


where a, y are the coordinates of the stars given in Table I, and 
E,, Ey are coefficients of the gravitational displacement. 

The quantities ¢ and f are corrections to zero, depending on the 
setting of the scale plate on the plate measured, a and e¢ are differ- 
ences of scale value, while 6 and d depend mainly on the orientation 
of the two plates. The quantity a denotes the deflection at unit dis- 
tance (7. ¢., 50’ from the sun’s center), so that aE, and aE, are the 
deflection in right ascension and declination, respectively, of a star 
whose coordinates are x and y. 

The left-hand sides of the equation for the seven stars shown are :— 


No. Right ascension. Declination. 


11..| c—0.1606—1.261a—0.587a. ..| f—1.261d—0.160e+0.036a. 
5...] €—1.1076— .160a— .557a...| f— .160d—1.107e— .789e. 
4...) c+ .472b+ .334a— .186a...| f+ .334d+ .472e+-1.3360. 
3...| c+ .36004+ .348a— .222a...| f+ .348d+ .360e+1.574a. 
6...| C+1.0996+ .587a+ .080a...| f+ .587d+-1.099¢4- .726a. 
10. .| €+1.321b+ .860a-+- .158a...| f+ .860d-+-1.321e+ .589a. 
2...| c— .328b+-1.0790-+1.540a...| f-+1.079d— .328e— .156a. 


20. Normal equations formed from these equations of condition 
are as follows: 


TaBLE III.—Lclipse plates, right ascension. 


+7. 000c-+-1. 6576-+-1. 787a-+0. 226a—=| +2.159 | +2.986 | +3.250 | +2.461 | :+2.185 | +3.263 | +2. 648 
+4, 664 +2.089 +0.335 =| —0.063 | +0. 986 | +1.320 | +0. 866 | +1.051 | +1. 464 | +1.130 

+4.094 42,534 =|] +1.034 | +1.689 | +1.866 | +1.469 | +1.480 | +1.972 | +1. 723 

+3.142 =| +0. 712 | +0.919 | +0.924 | +0. 860 | +0. 844 | +0.930 | +0.973 


+4. 2710-+-1. 666¢+0. 28la=| —0.575 | +0.278 | +0.550 | +0.283 | +0.533 | +0.691 | +0.502 
+3. 683 +2.476 =| +0.483 | +0.928 | +1.037 | +0.841 | +0.923_| +1.140 | +1.048 
+3.135 =| +0.643 | +0. 823 | +0.820 |} +0.781 | +0. 774 | +0. 826 | +0.888 


+2. 988¢-+-2..366ae=| +-0. 707 | +0. 820 | +0.822 | +0. 731 | +0. 715 |. +0.871 | +0. 852 
+3.116 =| +0.681 | +0.805 | +0..784 | +0. 762 | +0. 739 | +0. 780 | +0. 855 


+1. 2420=| +0.121 | +0.156 | +0.133 | +0.183 | +0.173 | +0.090 | +0. 180 


o=| +0.098 | +0.126 | +0.107 |. +0.148 | +0.140 | +0.073 | +0.145 
a=] +0.158 | +0.174 | +0.189 |'+0.127 | +0.128 | +0. 233 | +0. 169 
b=] —0.203 | —0.011 | +0. 048 | +0.007 | +0.042 | +0.066 | +0.042 


Aa A te 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 


TaBLteE IV.—Comparison plates, right ascension. 


149 


14oq. 1490. 15). 152. 17%. 17>. 182. 
+7.000¢ +1.657b +1.787a +-0.226a =|} +1.190 | +0.364 | +1.463 | +0.214 | +1.214 | +0.983 | +-0.146 
44.664 +2.089 +0.335 =| +0.700 | +0.017 | +0.992 | +0.078 | —0.340 | +0.603 | +0.083 
44.094 +2.535 =| +0.638 | +0.220 | +0.499 | +0.073 | —0.172 | +0. 450 | +0. 085 
43.142 =| +0.253 | +0.159 | —0.029 | +0.037 | —0.164 | +0.105 | +0.041 
+4,271b +1.666a +0.28le =| +0.418 | —0.069 | +0.645 | +0.027 | —0.627 | --0.370 | +0.048 
+3.683 +2.476 =| +0.334 | +0.127 | 4-0.126 | +0.018 | —9.481 | +0.199 | +-0.048 
+3.135 =| +0.215 | +0.147 | —0.076 | +0.030 | ~0.203 | +0.074 | +0. 036 
+2.988a +2.366a =| +0.172 | +0.154 | —0.126 | +0.007 | —0.236 | +0.055 | +0.029 
43.116 =| +0.188 | +0.152 | —0.119 | +0.028 | —0.162 | +0.050 | +0. 033 
+1, 242a =| +0.052 | +0.030 | —0.019 | +0.022 | +0.025 | +0.006 | +0.010 
a =| +0.042 | +0.024 | —0.015 | +0.018 | +0.020 | +0.005 | +0. 008 
a =| +0.024 | +0.032 | —0.030 | —0.012 | —0.094 | +0.014 | +0.003 
b =| +0.086 | —0.030 | +0.164 | +0.012 | —0.111 | +0.081 | +0.010 
TABLE V.—LHclipse plates, declination. 
I. Il. Iii. IV. Vv. VII. VIII 
+7.000f +1. 787d +1.657e +3.316e =| +3.688 | +1.927 | +1.646 | +1. 452 | +1.389 | +1. 718 | +1. 906 
44,094 +2.089 +1.840 =| +2.200 | +1.168 | +-0.719 | +0.823 | +0.555 | 0.610 | +0. 840 
+4,664 +3.694 =| +1.860 | +1.159 | +1.129 | +0.984 | +0.874 | +1.023 | +1.193 
+5.784 =| +2.657 | +1.681 | +1.535 | +1.361 | +1.335 | +1.545 | +1. 707 
4+3.638d +1,666¢ +0.994a =| +1.260 | +0.677 | +0.299 | +0. 453 | +0.201 | +0.172 | +0.354 
+4,271 +2.908 =| +0.986 | +0. 702 | +0.739 | +0.640 | +0.545 | +0.616 | +0. 741 
+4,212 =| +0.909 | +0.768 | +0. 755 | +0.673 | +0.677 | +0.731 | +0. 804 
+3.508e +2. 453a =| +0.409 | +0.392 | +0.602 | +0.431 | +0.453 | +0.537 | ++0.579 
+3.941 =| +0.565 | +0.583 | +0.673 | +0.549 | +0.622 | +0.684 | --0. 707 
+2.224a =| +0.279 | +0.309 | +0.252 | +0.247 | +0.305 | +0.308 | +0. 302 
a =| +0.126 | +0.139 | +0.114 | +0.111 | +0.137 | +0.139 | +0. 136 
e =| +0.029 | +0.015 | +0.092 | +0.045 | +0.033 | +0.056 | +-0.070 
d =| +0.299 | +0.141 | +0.009 | +0.074 | +0.003 | —0.016 | +0.028 


12573°—21—_11. 


150 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


TABLE VI.—Comparison plates, declination. 


+7.000f +1. 787d +1.657e +3.3160 =| +0.446 | +0.661 | +0.964 | +0.343 | +1. 861 | +0. 752 | +0. 868 
+4.094 +2.089 +1.840 =] +0.060 | +0.420 | —0.156 | +0.140 |} +1.038 | +0.041 | +0. 476 

+4.664 +3.694 =| +0.202 | +0.394 | —0.203 | —0.117 | +0.526 | —0.110 | +0. 122 

+5. 784 =| +0.380 | +0.482] +0.220 | +0.044 | +1.004 | +0.296 | +0.419 


+3.638d +1.666e +0. 9940 =| —0.054 | +0.251 | —0.402 | +0.053 | +0.563 | +0.151 | +0. 255 
+4.271 +2.908 =| +0.096 | +0.237 | —0.431 | —0.198 | +-0.085 | —0.288 | —0. 084 
+4.212 =| +0.168 | +0.169 | —0.237 | —0.119 | +0.122 | —0.060 | +0. 008 


+3.508e +2.453a =| +0.121 | +0.122 | —0.247 | —0. 222 | —0.173 | —0.219 | —0. 201 
+3.941 =] +0.183 | +0.100 | —0.127 | —0.133 | —0.032 | —0.019 | —0. 062 


+2. 2240 =| +0.098 | +0.015 | +0.046 | +0.022 | +0.039 | +0.134 | +0.079 


a =| +0.044 | +0.007 | +0.021 | +0.010 | +0.040 | +0.060 | +0. 036 
€ =| +0.004 | +0.030 | —0.085 | —0.070 | —0.077 | —0.104 | —0.082 


21. The values of « are collected in Table VII: 


Taste VII. 
Right ascension. Declination. 
“ Compari- Eelipse— Compari- 
Kelipse—scale. | son—scale. scale. son—scale, 
r rT rT T 
+0. 098 +0. 042 +0. 126 +0. 044 
+0. 126 +0. 024 +0. 139 +0. 007 
+0. 107 —0. 015 +0. 114 +0. 021 
+0. 148 +0. 018 +0. 111 +0. 010 
+0. 140 -+-0. 020 +0. 137 -+0. 040 
+0. 073 +0. 005 +0.139 -++0. 060 
+0. 145 +0. 008 +0. 136 +0. 036 
Mean +0. 120 +0. 015 +0. 129 +0. 031 


By substraction the « of the comparison plates the scale plate is 
eliminated, and we derive from right ascensions «-=-+-0.105" and from 
declinations «=-+0.098". 

Reference to the normal equations shows that the declination re- 
sult is of double the weight of that from the right ascensions. 

Thus 

a= -+0.100"= +.0.625””, 


This is at a distance 50’ from the sun’s center. At the time of the 
eclipse the sun’s radius was 15.8’; thus the deflection at the limb 
as) 1.987": 

The range in the values of @ is attributable to the errors inherent 
to the star images of the different plates, and can not be reduced by 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. - 15] 


further measurement. The mean values -+0.015" and 0.031" arise 
from the errors in the intermediary scale plate. 

22. The probable error of the result judging from the accordance 
of the separate determinations is about 6 per cent. It is desirable to 
consider carefully the possibility of systematic error. The eclipse 
and comparison photographs were taken under precisely similar in- 
strumental conditions, but there is the difference that the eclipse 
photographs were taken on the day of May 29, and the comparison 
photographs on nights between July 14 and July 18. A very satis- 
factory feature of the photographs is the essential similarity of the 
star images on the two sets of photographs. 

The satisfactory accordance of the eclipse and comparison plates 
is shown by a study of the plate constants. The following correc- 
tions for differential refraction and aberration are calculated from 
the times and dates of exposure. 


a. é db. d. 
T T 
BH PSONDIAGCS yee) ner (oa eter eect es +0. 240 +0. 168 +0, 062 +0. 062 
SGELD [LURES SABES LE eh Bea id se i tiie Be Sale + .423 + .207 + .096 + .096 
ontysrisOn 14h). vi2ae sees eee eke segn = aes eteabinn - + .409 + .207 + .091 + .091 
V4gp:------- 222-2 2 eee eee ++ . 409 + .207 + .091 + .091 
1b) Bee: Ase eee ee Seeee eee eee een sno eoe + .390 + .207 + .087 a eOsT 
iy PA e sec aeeee 348 Gee Eno eae See See See + .370 + .202 + .087 ++ .087 
oY RR ones e eee Sine eee ene te ae + -399 + ..207 + .091 ++ .091 
17... -------------- 2222222 eee eee eee + .337 + .202 + .077 + .077 
Lohpesans Gaddos dct sosedepeaecdsecracen sabe + £327 + .202 + 2072 + .072 


_ When these are applied to the values of the constants found from 
the normal equations we find the following values of the scale of the 
several photographs and their orientation relative to the scale plate: 


Scale value. Orientation. 
Adopted scale and 
orientation. 
From z. From y. From 2. From y. |° a Q 
r T r T 

MICH pPsetT Ios Ie- wee =) TRE 5 ese —0. 025 —0. 010 —0. 237 —0. 265 0.000 —0. 251 
1 A ee el eee a — .009 — .024 — .045 r=. 107 0.000 — .076 
ITE eR Laie +..006 + .053 + .014 + .025 0.000 + .020 
NTN fh NS oe oe ae — .056 + .006 — .027 — .040 0.000 — .034 
AV) ee en Bae gee — .055 — .006 + .008 + .031 0.000 + .020 
VALE RES Bese Mae + .050 +. .017 + . 032 + .050 0.000 + .041 
S00 015 Sa Pee eee See — .014 + .031 + . 008 ++ . 006 0.000 + .007 
Comparison 149g....--.-----.-- + .010 + .004 + .081 + . 033 +0, 013 + .057 
Ey ee or ee eas + .018 + .030 — 035 — .049 + .013 — .042 
Gop ko deee sens —.. 063 — .085 + 155 + . 086 — .084 + .120 
LS eae re et ome — .065 — .075 + .003 — .035 — .084 — .016 
LR SESSA. Joe — .118 — .077 — .116 — .174 — .084 — .145 
WC ASE ee, a — .072 — .109 + .062 + . 029 — .084 + .046 


TSP eats © = Cees aaa — .093 — . 087 — .014 — .074 — .084 


| 
2 
ss 


152 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The agreement in the scale values obtained from x and y is satis- 
factory. There appears to be a small difference in the orientations 
as derived from the two directions in the comparison plates. This 
is, however, of small importance in the determination of «. There 
is a difference of scale value from July 15-18 shown in both coordi- 
nates. For the purpose of exhibitmg the gravitational displace- 
ments residuals have been computed using adopted values for the 
seale and orientation given above along with the calculated correc- 
tions for differential refraction and aberration. This has the ad- 
vantage of reducing the number of constants employed in the reduc- 
tion of the plates and lessens the possibility of masking any dis- 
cordances, though greater irregularities necessarily appear when four 
arbitrary constants instead of six are used in the reduction of each 
plate. The quantities are converted from revolutions to seconds of 
arc, as the more familiar unit facilitates judgment of the results. 
TABLE VIII.—Comparison of the Eclipse and comparison photographs with the 

scale plate after correction for differential refraction and aberration, orien- 


tation, and change of scale. 
ECLIPSE PLATES, RIGHT ASCENSION. 


No. of star. I. TI. TIT. Iv. Vie Vil. Vill. Mean. 
wv aA w Ld Lid Ls wr a 
TE SRE aCRe aa Soc aber ae —0. 18 —0, 51 —0. 46 —0.07 —0. 04 —0, 72 —0. 43 —0.34 
RY eed aneanqseonseerce — .45 ee = 38 08 — .60 — .36 — 62 — .i4 
hee boring sea caeaece + .08 =e ead: = 208 i aki cil — 216 = 218 — .06 
Boece onebarse: Ss60o8s =H. 20 ae! = ie) — .05 — 202 — .02 — 01 — .09 
5 eS eats AS — .14 + .23 —, 2.09 — 11 — .18 + .13 — .08 — .08 
Wee Gag sees sess sss: ae kT, + .06 sme ole! — 1) ao erie am cil: — OF + .08 
DERE S. TEOLASIS. eee + .7 +1. 03 +1.06 +1. 09 +1. 01 + .98 +1.30 +1. 03 


ECLIPSE PLATES, DECLINATION. 


Isat Me Ase ae ee 0.00 — 00 —0. 03 +0. 02 +0.17 +0. 15 +0. 01 +0. 03 
Ppa ere sates te iaieieinia jer as — .38 — .54 = 5 OL — .30 aL) ie — ob — 
de es aRE HBC See GaSe +1.19 +1. 04 +1. 03 = ici Sele +1. 19 +1. 24 Sel eit! 
Bi sbetockgsduacces sis +1. 42 +1.58 +1. 50 +1.39 +1. 55 +1. 49 +1.49 +1.49 
Gece waumaninew sere + .65 a ac ad +1.01 + .97 +271 “+ 295 +1.01 + .87 
ieee Sodsscseneescan< + .62 + .46 +1. 03 “F.5d + .56 + .58 + .74 + .65 
(oe eS paeeicse | J 35-idoee =P. Ob + .25 — .40 — .09 — .22 — 14 —.17 =i 


145q. 1405 151 152. In 172, 18. Mean. 

a a wv nr uw ” wr La 
ye ae a ala we ielattetatalete l= —0.19 —0. 24 —0, 23 —0. 28 +0. 11 —0.19 —0. 02 —0.15 
Gs bE egos se4insooo5cas — .2 do} (— 230 — .32 — 224 — .33 — .26 — .25 
{ogc daooaseneutgogacce =~ 01 +203 — .01 + .05 = 04 + .23 + .08 + .05 
Dobe Sec ogee Aca dacicme spaces Seney + .28 + .10 — .03 +. 21 —i 01 Src 
Cacronegtsessucedorsile +. 02 — .18 + 126 + .06 -".13 + .03 +14 + .07 
TUE oe i A Shee 7 — .06 + .20 + .18 - 13 =F 02 +15 Gras! 
CRAB MAGEE AG sonia tesa + 31 + .18 — .16 + .22 — .04 + .08 — .06 + .08 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT——-DYSON AND OTHERS. 158 


Taste VIII.—Comparison of the Eclipse and comparison photographs, etc.—Con. 
COMPARISON PLATES, DECLINATION. 


Betas elaine atin <)sie~i= —0. 07 +0. 08 —0. 26 —0. 04 —0, 26 —0.18 —0. 16 —0. 13 
De sena ne osteecee ase. — .23 — .03 + .03 -00 Sig + .03 — .20 — .08 
Bmeepeerisi oP eis 7/2 = a + .23 + .05 + .29 +..18 + .45 + .53 + .23 + .28 
Seat ose Ree oe + .64 + .41 +,.42 + .36 + .48 + .60 + 204 =>) 249 
Pasencat se teeckeeaaass + .22 + .36 + .33 + .26 + .41 + .21 + .32 + .30 
1 A oa Maen + .28 + .32 + .31 + .36 + .36 + .15 + .29 + .30 
Po bsncerposcnasae eee + .25 +) e/14 + .18 + .21 + .09 — .03 + add + .16 


Subtracting the results of the comparison plates so as to eliminate 
the errors arising from the intermediary scale plate we find for the 
displacements of the different stars, as compared with those as given 
by Einstein’s theory, with value 1.75’’ at the sun’s limb: 


Displacement in right Displacement in 
ascension. declination. 
No. of star. eee 
Observed. | Calculated.| Observed. | Calculated. 
ur au wt ve 
DEST SECE 234 —0;19 —0.32 +0. 16 +0. 02 
Shae sides — .29 — .31 — .46 — .43 
Bee h ae scasee — .ll — .10 + .83 arate! 
Seee's ese — .20 — .12 +1. 00 45 d2y 
(ese ae as — .10 + .04 + .57 + .40 
DOLE Bae — .08 + .09 + .35 + .32 
Dette eee oe + .95 + .85 — .27 — .09 


{The sign of the displacement in right ascension of No. 6 was printed in Philosophical 
Transactions of the Royal Society of London as +. This and several other typographi- 
eal errors, kindly pointed out by Prof. Bauer, have been corrected.] 


PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN WITH THE ASTROGRAPHIC OBJECT GLASS. 


23. As stated above, these photographs were taken with the astro- 
graphic object glass stopped down to 8 inches, mounted in a steel 
tube and fed by a 16-inch celostat. From many years’ experience 
with the object glass at Greenwich it is certain that when the object 
glass is mounted in a steel tube the change of scale over a range of 
temperature of 10° F. should be insignificant, and the definition 
should be very good. It was realized that this high standard would 
not be obtained with the glass used in conjunction with the ccelostat 
taken to Brazil, but nevertheless the results shown when the plates 
were developed were very disappointing. The images were diffused 
and apparently out of focus, although on the night of May 27 the 
focus was good. Worse still, this change was temporary, for with- 

6 The following note made at the time is quoted in full: ‘“‘ May 30, 3 a. m., four of the 
astrographic plates were developed, and when dry examined. It was found that there had 
been a serious change of focus, so that, while the stars were shown, the definition was 
spoiled. This change of focus can only be attributed to the unequal expansion of the 
mirror through the sun’s heat. The readings of the focussing scale were checked next day, 


but were found unaltered at 11.0 millimeters. It seems doubtful whether much can be got 
from these plates,” 


154 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


out any change in the adjustments, the instrument had returned to 
focus when the comparison plates were taken in July. 

These changes must be attributed to the effect of the sun’s heat on 
the mirror, but it is difficult to say whether this caused a real change 
of scale in the resulting photographs or merely blurred the images. 

The photographs were measured in the astrographic duplex mi- 
crometer, the eclipse photographs being directly compared with the 
comparison plates taken in July. All the stars shown were measured. 
They were reduced by the same method as that employed for the 
“4-inch” photographs. With the exception of plates Nos. 15 and 16, 
taken through clouds, the stars numbered 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, and 12 
are shown on all the plates; the fainter stars 2, 7, 8, and 9 are some- 
times shown, but No. 1, which is very near the sun, is always drowned 
in the corona. These plates were only measured in declination, as 
the right ascensions without No. 1 are of little weight. 

94. In the following table is given the value of «, the constant of 
the gravitational displacement, as calculated from the measures; 
the apparent difference of scale e between the eclipse and comparison 
plates; d, the difference of orientation of the plates given by the 
measures of y and depending on the adjustment of the plates in the 
measuring machine. 


TasLe IX. 
(1?s=12,.3”.) 
Values of d, e, a in revolutions 
Reference at 50’ distance. 
No. of eclipse plate. ean ie a ina epee: oaoibacal eae MEAN sun’s limb 
late! * é a in are. 
r T tT m 
ihe 2) ae Oe ee ee aR ERT eT es oe 184 a +0. 051 +0. 089 +0. 033 +1. 28 
Des deere ep tied. Scien atts eee 184 ll — .009 + .059 + .025 + .97 
Se ae ree ect nes Saree yer 184 8 — .074 + .101 + .028 +1. 09 
Ee AB ea cain te nie tare are estate eae 184 11 — .168 + .091 + .033 +1. 28 
i P tdee SESE. By. SU: Pe Be 113 10 + .094 + .076 + °.025 + .97 
Bice caret abs) Yo acai 113 ll + .186 + .082 + .021 + .82 
Va ceed hepish oats eat Ua, Aaiecore eee a 143 12 + .006 + .119 . 000 .00 
Mee eae cere Eee ce ree 183 7 — .054 + .166 . 060 . 00 
eS SS. LEP BERS Eee 143 10 + .093 + .064 + .021 + .82 
De ae Eoin em cRies Sa Ee 174 7 — .096 + .129 + .008 + .31 
HO ee a aise areas ela ke 17% 10 + .090 + .045 + .026 +1.01 
eee ee Oe Se OS eee 1h; 10 + .073 + .061 + .032 +1.24 
TORE A SE, EE Fass 1h; il — .009 + .102 + .049 +1. 91 
5 Ae EIR pe SAY SAO Ot Sy Rs 172 7 — .102 + .114 + .019 + .74 
Doe ise tec dacisiaae we macicee eases 153 6 + .111 + .036 + .018 “+ .70 
DBs en se ppaiu cise eins cee oe 153 7 — .002 + .037 + .018 + .70 
Die che sayeeh at och? bapeterd: sieetes = 172 8 — .022 + .109 + .012 + .47 
PBwer: swiibo ies th ele yess aka, 172 7 + .045 . 000 + .030 +1.17 


| | | | | cq“ 


ig 
fo) 
+ 
oS 
B 
+ 
- 
. 
+ 
i=) 
g 


: 
; 
| 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 155 


Thus the mean value of « obtained from all the astrographic plates 
is 0.86’, a figure considerably less than that obtained from the 4-inch 
photographs. 

25. Reference to the diagram shows that the measurement of dis- 
placement depends essentially on the position of the stars Nos. 3 
and 4 relative to 5 on one side and 6 and 10 on the other. These are 
all bright stars, and in this respect their images are more comparable 
than are the images of the fainter stars. The measures of these stars 
are given in the following table: 


Measured values of Dy for stars Nos.— Measured values of Dy for stars Nos.— 
No. of No. of 
eclipse eclipse ; 
plate. 5 4 3 6 10 plate 5 4 3 6 10 
r r r T r r r Tr Tr r 
ihe og: oe —0. 051 |+0.175 |+0.169 |+0. 201 |+0. 235 |} 9--...--- —0. 059 |+0.121 |+0.109 |+-0. 205 | +0. 180 
eee Lee +0. 558 |+0.656 |+0. 724 |+0. 668 |+-0. 702 || 10..-.... +0. 033 |+0. 270 |+0.188 |+0.258 | +0. 280 
See ssacis +0. 124 |+-0. 285 |+-0. 286 }-++0. 274 |+0.355 |] 11......- +0. 025 |+-0. 215 |+0. 210 |++0. 233 | -++0. 274 
Bee sctet +0. 111 |+0. 222 |+0..247 |+0. 231 |+0.167 || 12....... —0.068 |-+0. 144 |+-0.124 |+-0.160 | +0. 167 
Tansee +0. 034 |-++0. 228 |+-0. 232 |+-0. 218 |+0.308 |] 15.....-- —0.038 |-+0.138 |+0.107 |+0.172 |.-.....- 
Geeacceacc +0. 164 |+0. 488 |+0. 478 |+0. 557 |-+0. 637 |] 16......- —0. 050 |+0.076 |+0.046 |+0.127 | +0.073 
Te Ae —0.051 |+-0.156 |+-0. 162 |++0. 250 |+0.279 |} 17......- —0. 071 |+0. 104 |+0. 081 |+0.186 | +0. 164 
Se eia ws ath +0. 108 |++-0.330 |++-0.314 |+0.376 |+0.397 |} 18......- +0.016 |+0.092 |+0.109 |+0.099 | +0. 084 


The equations given by these stars are: 


—0.160d—1.107e—0.789¢+f/=Dy, (1) 
-+-0.3834d-++0.472e+-1.336a-+7=Dy, (2) 
-++0.348d-+--0.360e+1.574a+f=Dy, (3) 
+0.587¢d-+1.099e-+0.726a+f=Dy, (4) 
+0.860d-+-1.321e-++0.589a+7=Dy,, (5) 


The mean of (4) and (5) added to (1) gives 
+0.564d-+0.103e—0.131¢4+2f=Dy,+4(Dy,+Dy,,). 
While the sum of (2) and (8) gives 
+0.682d-.0.832¢-+2.9100-+2f—=Dy,+Dy,. 
Subtracting these we get 
3.041 a-+-0.729e+-0.118d=Dy, +Dy,—Dy;—3 (Dy, +Dy,,). 

This equation has a small coefficient for e and a very small one 
for d. / 

Calculating the quantities on the right-hand side, assuming e to 
be the same for all the plates, and substituting the values of d from 
the previous table, we find: 


ie r 
a+0.240e=+0.056__--1 a+0,240e=+0.035____ 9 
a+0.240e=+0.049____2 a+0.240e=-+0.048____10 
a+0.240e=+0.047___-3 a+0.240e=-+0.045___ 11 
a+0.240e=-+0.059____4 a+0.240e=-+0.059____12 
a+0.240e=-+0.050____5 2+0.283e=-+0.026____15 
a+0.240e=-+0.059____6 a+0.240e= +0.024____16 
a+0.240e=-+ 0.036____7 a+0.240e=+0.028____17 


a+0,240e=+0.046____8 a+0.240e=+0.029____18 


156 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


In photograph No. 15, star 10 is not shown, and the equation is 
slightly modified. It may also be noticed that the values are some- 
what smaller for Nos. 15 to 18. 

The means of the 16 photographs treated in this manner give 

a+243e=-+0.0435", 
or with the value of the scale 0.082" from the previous table 
a=-+0.024"=0.93’" at the limb. 

It may be noticed that the change of scale arising from differences 
of refraction and aberration is 0.020". If this value of e be taken 
instead of 0.082" we obtain 

a—=-+0.039T=+1.52”" at the sun’s limb. 

The equations on page 155 were also solved by least squares for each 
plate. There is a considerable range in the deduced values of a, as is 
to be expected when « and e are determined independently for each 
plate. The mean result for « is 0.99’’, or very nearly the same as that 
already found. 

The photographs taken with the astrographic telescope support 
those obtained by the “4-inch” to the extent that they show con- 
siderable outward deflection, but for the reasons already given are of 
much less weight. 


IV. THE EXPEDITION TO PRINCIPE. 
[Observers, Prof. A. S. Eddington and Mr. EH. T. Cottingham. ] 


26. The expedition left Liverpool on the Anselm on March 8, and 
traveled in company with the Sobral expedition as far as Madeira. 
It was necessary to wait there until April 9, when the journey was 
continued on the Portugal, belonging to the Companhia Nacional de 
Navegacio. ‘The expedition landed at the small port of San Antonio 
in the Isle of Principe on April 23. 

Vice Admiral Campos Rodrigues and Dr. F. Oom of the National 
Observatory, Lisbon, had kindly given us introductions, and every- 
thing possible was done by those on the island for the success of the 
work and the comfort of the observers. We were met on board by 
the acting administrator Sr. Vasconcélos, Sr. Carneiro, president of 
the Association of Planters, and Sr. Grageira, representing the 


Sociedade d’Agricultura Colonial, who made all necessary arrange-_ 


ments. The Portuguese Government dispensed with any customs 
examination of the baggage. 

27. Principe is a small island belonging to Portugal, situated just 
north of the equator in the Gulf of Guinea, about 120 miles from 
the African coast. The extreme length and breadth are about 10 
miles and 6 miles. Near the center mountains rise to a height of 
2,500 feet, which generally attract heavy masses of cloud. Except 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 157 


for a certain amount of virgin forest, the island is covered with 
coco plantations. The climate is very moist, but not unhealthy. 
The vegetation is luxuriant, and the scenery is extremely beautiful. 
We arrived near the end of the rainy season, but the gravana, a dry 
wind, set in about May 10, and from then onwards no rain fell ex- 
cept on the morning of the eclipse. 

We were advised that the prospects of clear sky at the end of May 
were not very good, but that the best chance was on the north and 
west of the island. After inspecting two other sites on the property 
of the Sociedade d’Agricultura Colonial, we fixed on Roca Sundy, 
the headquarters of Sr. Carneiro’s chief plantation. We were Sr. 
Carneiro’s guests during our whole visit, and used freely his ample 
resources of labor and material at Sundy. We learned later that he 
had postponed a visit to Europe in order to entertain us. We were 
also greatly indebted to his manager at Sundy, Sr. Atalaya, with 
whom we lived for five weeks; his help and attention were invaluable. 
Mr. Wright and Mr. Lewis of the cable station kindly assisted us 
as interpreters when necessary. 

Sundy is situated in the northwest of the island overlooking the 
sea at a height of 500 feet, and as far as possible from the cloud- 
gathering peaks. Our telescope was erected in a small walled in- 
closure adjoining the house, from which the ground sloped steeply 
down to the sea in the direction of the sun at eclipse. On the other 
side it was sheltered by a building. The approximate position was 
latitude 1° 40’ N., longitude 29m. 32s. E. 

28. The baggage was brought to Sundy on April 28 mainly by 
tram, but with a break of about a kilometer, where it had to be 
transported through the woods by native carriers. After a week 
spent on the preparations, we returned to San Antonio for the week 
May 6-13, as it was undesirable to unpack the mirror so early in 
the damp climate. On our return to Sundy the installation and 
adjustments were soon completed, and the first check plates were 
taken on May 16. Meanwhile the gravana had begun, which, al- 
though there is no rain, is generally accompanied by increased clouds. 
There were, however, some days of clear sky, and the nights were 
usually clear. 

The ceelostat was mounted on a stone pier built for the purpose. 
The clock weight fell into a pit below the clock deep enough to 
allow a run of 36 minutes without rewinding. Care was taken to 
use a particular part of the ccelostat sector, considered to be the 
most perfect, in photographing the eclipse and the check field. The 
telescope (Oxford astrographic object glass, see p. 137) rested on 
wooden Vs near the two ends, the Vs bemg supported on packing 
cases; the one at the breech end could be moved laterally to allow 


158 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


of different declination settings, and was marked with an approxi- 
mate declination scale. A series of exposures of one second was 
made on a bright star to test whether there was any shake of the 
telescope after inserting the plate; no shake was detected even when 
the exposure was made immediately; but as a safeguard for the 
eclipse photographs a full second was allowed to elapse before be- 
ginning the exposure. The exposure was made by moving a card- 
board screen unconnected with the instrument. The telescope pointed 
slightly downward, and the-tube was turned so as to give the right 
orientation to the plate, the lines of declination being 2° or 38° in- 
clined to the horizontal. A canvas screen was arranged to protect 
the tube and object glass from the direct radiation of the sun. 

The adjustments call for little comment. In view of the purpose 
of the observations it was desirable to adjust the tilt of the object 
glass and plate with special care. It was also important that the 
setting on the field should be nearly exact. The sun appeared on 
the eclipse day in sufficient time to allow of the setting being made 
by means of the solar image; but arrangements had been tested 
by which the correct field would have been obtained if it had been 
cloudy up to totality.’ The telescope was focused by trial photo- 
graphs of stars, and owing to the uniform temperature of the island 
the focus was unchanged for day observations. 

The object glass was stopped down to 8 inches for the eclipse photo- 
graphs and for all check and comparison photographs used in the 
reductions. 

29. The days preceding the eclipse were very cloudy. On the 
morning of May 29 there was a very heavy thunderstorm from about 
10 a. m. to 11.30 a. m.—a remarkable occurrence at that time of year. 
The sun then appeared for a few minutes, but the clouds gathered 
again. About half an hour before totality the crescent sun was 
glimpsed occasionally, and by 1.55 it could be seen continuously 
through drifting clouds. The calculated time of totality was from 
2 hours 18 minutes 5 seconds, to 2 hours 18 minutes 7 seconds, 
Greenwich mean time. Exposures were made according to the pre- 
pared program, and 16 plates were obtained. Mr. Cottingham gave 
the exposures and attended to the driving mechanism, and Professor 
Eddington changed the dark slides.. It appears from the results 
that the cloud must have thinned considerably during the last third 
of totality, and some star images were shown on the later plates. 
The cloudier plates give very fine photographs of a remarkable 
prominence, which was on the limb of the sun. 

A few minutes after totality the sun was in a perfectly clear sky, 
but the clearance did not last long. It seems likely that the break-up 


™The method depended on setting the cross wires of the theodolite (attached to the 
eelostat) on a terrestrial mark, and then starting the clock at a particular instant. 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 159 


of the clouds was due to the eclipse itself, as it was noticed that 
the sky usually cleared at sunset. 

It had been intended to complete all the measurements of the 
photographs on the spot; but owing to a strike of the steamship 
company it was necessary to return by the first boat, if we were not 
to be marooned on the island for several months. By the inter- 
vention of the administrator, berths, commandeered by the Portu- 
guese Government, were secured for us on the crowded steamer. We 
left Principe on June 12, and after transshipping at Lisbon reached 
Liverpool on July 14. 

30. The following is a list of the photographs, including the 
comparison photographs kindly taken for us by Mr. F. A. Bellamy 
at Oxford, before the instrument was dismounted. All the eclipse 
photographs are given though only W and X furnished results. Of 
the other series only the exposures actually used jn the reductions 
are given. 

List of plates. 
Check Field (R. A. 14h. 12m. 47s., declination + 20° 30’). 


Local sidereal] Expo- | Approx.| Barom- | Ther- 
Reference. Place. Date. time. sure. Z.D. eter. |mometer.| Flate 
1919 emis s Ss $ in 3 
Chak POO Oxford Jan. 16 12 *55 “10 60 35 29. 64 37.0 i) 
Bynes MOUS by do... 17 13 10 40 60 34 29. 83 35.3 S 
Ce ee Wor ee 17 13 54 55 60 31 29. 83 35.3 iS} 
ES OO eC) ee do 17 14.9 25 60 31 29. 83 35.3 s 
(EGER a en Gone 255 23 Teeedox) BO 60 33 30. 45 29.0 Ss 
Greenwich Expo- | Approx. | Barom- Ther- 
Reference. Place. Date. | meantime. | sure. ap: eter. |mometer.| Fate. 
1919 Wem Us. .8 $ ° in 5 
Wie anise cacao Principe May 22 12 25 40 40 43 29.45 76. 5 S.R 
Thee acts Leek] SSE doseii.t 22 12 31 20 40 45 29. 45 76.5 S.R 
aE eke cpus Boss csxe 22 12 37 50 80 46 29, 45 76.5 S.R 
OP SABES ERS Beton Gems Gots. 25 12 22. 20 40 45 29, 45 76.5 S.S 
Cap is desea bodies | tll do: fs. <2. 25 12 26 20 40 46 29, 45 76. 5 s.s 
Eclipse Field (R. A. 4h. 19m. 30s., declination +21° 43’). 
Local sidereal) Expo- | Approx. | Barom- Ther- 
Reference. Place. Date. time. sure. 7 D. eter. |mometer.| Fate- 
1919. h. ™. 8 ° in. ‘A 
Die gue ccesien Oxford..-.| Jan. 16 3) 58% .41 5 30 29. 65 39.0 s 
Giese ge ek do.. 22 4 4 39 5 30 30. 30 31.0 s 
15 & (eyes aan a [eas do.2o 2%: 22 4 34 28 5 30 30. 30 31.0 Ss 
TRAE Shas REL dose 5A 22 4 48 46 10 31 30. 30 31.0 s 
Tigi eats ee ee a als dois his. Feb. 9 4 45 24 10 30 30. 48 24,5 Ss 


160 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


List of plates—Continued. 


Reference. Place. Date. Grawie, Fone A a oi aaoee eae, Plate. 
1919. hm. 8 8. ®, in. 6 

ee Principe..| May 29] 2 13 9 5 46 29.45 | 77.0 S.B 
g Die be angers EL do. 29 2 13 “28 10 46 29. 45 77.0 S.R 
MSS EER A Ges do. 29 2 13 46 3 46 29. 45 77.0 S.R 
Nie oS sein arepal seis dQ. base 29 2 14 #1 5 46 29. 45 77.0 E 

C0 PEE ep a a OC eae 29 2 14 20 10 46 29. 45 77.0 8.8 
Pe eaten sts oc Soles do. 29 2 14 44 15 46 29. 45 77.0 S.S 
Qe ae Ty er (opens 29 Oy R5ne 7/6 i} 46 29, 45 77.0 S.R 
As oe th do. . 29 2 15 (30 20 46 29. 45 77.0 S.R 
Bere teen saan Nd Oye sce 29 Zito) oo 3 46 29. 45 77.0 8.8 
US NS clas ba a gag ATAGe Cs oe 29 Papel Maul 5 15 46 29. 45 77.0 E 

ROSH pe ite eee oe Fea 30} Seay 29 2 16 37 10 46 29. 45 77.0 S.R 
IAC aT ops Seer aR wdOn abe ia 29 2 16 56 5 46 29. 45 77.0 S.S 
0) (Gb A a ete ieee (es Sethe certs 29 2 hi he 10 46 29. 45 77.0 § 

eee cee ao 29 2° 17° 33 3 46 29. 45 77.0 S.R 
Bis Sea bee ees] aie GU Eames 29 2 17 47 2 46 29. 45 77.0 S.R 
SADE, SIR NEY Sey dose eae 29 Paes La Sens b 2 46 29. 45 77.0 S.R 

NOTES. 


Column 1. The letter is marked on the original plates (preserved at Cambridge Observa- 
tory). The number refers to the exposure, disregarding exposures taken without the 
8-inch stop. 

Column 2. The coordinates of Oxford Observatory are 5m. 3s. W., 51° 46’ N., and of 
the site at Principe, 29m. 32s. E., 1° 40’ N. 

Column 4. The mid instant of the exposure is given. Times for check plates at 
Principe were only noted roughly. Times for the eclipse plates are deduced from the 
calculated time of totality, the interval from the end of one exposure to the beginning of 
the next being assumed uniform. 

Column 7. Readings at Principe were taken with an aneroid recording instrument, and 
therefore automatically reduced to the latitude of England. The barometer during our 
visit was practically constant, except for a regular semidiurnal wave of amplitude about 
0.05 inch. 


Column 9. Brand of plate: S., Imperial Sovereign; S. S., Imperial Special Sensitive; 
S. R., Ilford Special Rapid; E., Ilford Empress. Backed plates were used at Principe. 


The large proportion of Ilford Special Rapid plates used at the 
eclipse was due to the fact that experience in developing the check 
plates showed that these suffered less than the others from the high 
temperature of the water (78° F.). Ice was generally available for 
the check plates through the kindness of Sr. Grageira; but the supply 
failed after the eclipse, and formalin was used to harden the films. 
This was unsatisfactory except for the Ilford Special Rapid plates, 
and so plates P, S, T, W were brought home undeveloped. The de- 
veloping at Principe was done at night, and the drying was acceler- 
ated by use of alcohol. 

The use of an 8-inch stop in front of the object glass was suggested 
to us by Mr. Davidson, who showed that a great improvement of the 
images resulted; it was originally intended, however, to use the full 
aperture for part of totality. Early measures of check plates made at 
Principe soon convinced us that the results from the full aperture 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 161 


were greatly inferior, and we decided to rely entirely on the 8-inch 
aperture. 


THE CHECK PLATES. 


31. In addition to the eclipse field, a check field was photographed 
both at Oxford and at Principe. The field chosen included Arcturus, 
so that it was easily found with the ccelostat. Its declination was 
nearly the same as that of the eclipse field, and it was photographed 
at the same altitude at Principe in order that any systematic error, 
due to imperfections of the celostat mirror or other causes, might 
affect both sets of plates equally. The primary purpose was thus 
to check the possibility of systematic error arising from the different 
conditions of observation at Oxford and Principe, and from possible 
changes in the object glass during transit. Unlike the Sobral expe- 
dition, we were not able to take comparison photographs of the 
eclipse field at Principe, because for us the eclipse occurred in the 
afternoon, and it would be many months before the field could be 
photographed in the same position in the sky before dawn. The 
check plates were therefore specially important for us. 

As events turned out the check plates were important for another 
purpose, viz, to determine the difference of scale at Oxford and 
Principe. As shown in the report of the Sobral expedition, it is not 
necessary to know the scale of the eclipse photographs, since the 
reductions can be arranged so as to eliminate the unknown scale. 
If, however, a trustworthy scale is known and used in the reductions, 
the equations for the deflection have considerably greater weight, 
and the result depends on the measurement of a larger displacement. 
On surveying the meager material which the clouds permitted us to 
obtain, it was evident that we must adopt the latter course; and 
accordingly the first step was to obtain from the check plates a deter- | 
mination of the scale of the Principe photographs. 

32. All the measures were made by Professor Eddington with the 
Cambridge measuring machine.* An Oxford and a Principe plate 
were placed film to film so that the images of corresponding stars 
nearly coincided—this was possible because the Oxford plates were 
taken direct, and the Principe plates by reflection in the ccelostat 
mirror. 

The small differences Av and Ay, in the sense Principe-Oxford, 
were then measured for each star. Eight settings were made on 
each image; for half of them the field was rotated through 180° by 
the reversion prism. Five pairs of plates were measured, and the 
measures are given in Table XI. 


8 Monthly Notices, R. A. S., Vol. L:XI, p. 444, 


162 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


TABLE XI.—Check plates, measures. 


Approximate 


coordinates. ee! wi—by S2—Cy ™—d M1—e) 
Star. —— ee ee ee eee ee 
« y At. | Ay, | At. | Ay. | At. | Ay. | Az | Ay At | Ay 
Fees Se 1.41 | 20.31 | 4,346 | 7,180 | 3,199 | 4, 259 | 6,012 | 7,375 | 3,921 | 8,796 | 5,435 | 4,399 
mye COLT BE 5.89 | 12.74 | 3,865 | 6,405 | 3,394 | 4,129 | 4,922 | 6,132 | 3,039 | 7,440 | 5,978 | 4,170 
Ande orogd 9.46 | 11.13 | 3,640 | 5,932 | 3,408 | 4,118 | 4,369 | 5,366 | 2,638 | 6,776 | 5,966 | 4,441 
fee Rea eile 12.00,|, 6.84,| 3)312"| 5,590.|...---<|--.-22- 3, 831 | 4,752 | 1,938 | 6,156 |....... 4,314 
‘etrall agen: 12.80 | 27.33 | 5,415 | 6,561 | 3,192 | 5,140 | 7,689 | 5,925 | 5,379 | 7,580 | 5,032] 5,794 
PU CES 13.75 | 13.78 | 4,076 | 5,630 | 3,496 | 4,290 | 4,801 | 4,805 | 3,101 | 6,461 | 5,906 | 4, 826 
gidi ape. 4 15650 ia. 38°t 60254 6, 3004... fl ectba aolater Pho odon al. 5,139 | 5,412 
pNSeene St ae 20.13 | 10.49 | 3,965 | 4,940 | 3,679 | 4,505 | 4,656 | 3,568 | 2,866 | 5,370 | 6,398 | 5,229 
= less oem 20.81 | 0.93 | 2,874 | 4,352 | 3,876 | 3,759 | 2,845 | 2,815 | 1,238 | 4,758 | 7,268| 4,482 
ge eOY ON 22.91 | 6.23 | 3,685 | 4,436 | 3,931 | 4,158 | 4,039 | 2,738 | 2,270 | 4,551 | 6,765 | 5,076 
grr. Lerche 26.46 | 8.96 | 4,222 | 4,288 | 4,045 | 4,326 | 4,724 | 2,232 | 2,720 | 4,120 | 6,836 | 5,561 


The unit for # and y is 5 millimeters, which is approximately 
equal to 5’. The differences Ax, Ay are given in units of the fifth 
place of decimals = 0.003’”. The center of the plate is near # = 14. 
y = 14. 

Plate constants were then calculated in the usual way, by the 


formule 
Av = ax-+ by+e 
Ay = du + ey +f 


These were applied, and the residuals A,w, A,y converted into arc 
are as follows: 


TABLE XII.—Check plates, residuals. 


m1—-A wi—by So—Cy m—d 1-41 Mean 

Star. SS a SS SSS SSS EEE 
Ait. | Ary. | Art. | Ary. | Ait. | Ary. | Art. | Ary. | Art. |} Ary. | Ait. | Arg. 

as ay ay ” a” aw ay ar au aA tsa ar 
1 LEIS seat ie ee —0.02 |+0.02 |+0.29 |—0, 34 |+0.02 |—0.07 |—0.03 |+0. 22 |+0.49 |+0.01 |+0.15 |— 0.04 
Ee Sere ee + .39 [+ .15 |+ .16 |+ .14 |+ .69 00 |-+ .69 |— .29 |+ .10 |— .23 |4+ .41 |— .05 
Say. Gar Rut — .14 |— .04 J— .16 |4 .09 |— .38 |= .12 |— .02 |— .37 |— .54 |+ .12 |— .25 |— + .06 
Opt bean: ace 08), [rai dObihe <i debacavell panna 2 + ..25 [4+ .19:|— .2) |— .21]....... — .01 |— .01 | + .08 
(TAI eee — .06 — .10 |— .28 |+ .27 |— .09 |4+ .14 |— .10 J+ .12 |+ .15 J+ .49 |— .08 | + .18 
PES Se | BLY — .06 |— .28 |— .10 |— .16 |— .74 |— .09 |— .31 J+ .02 |— .39 |— .12 |— .32) — .13 
SION FY aeael ISO [Se SBA TOs ACE SES] PRED | I, Sere — .38 |— .68 |— .34 | — .17 
A0s- 26th. see. 6 — .02 |— .10 |J— .21 |4+ .52 |— .15 J+ .16 |-+ .08 |+ .25 |— .08 |4+ .34 |— .08 | + .23 
Ee ace Iie. — .46J/—.01 J— .13 |— .22 |— .13 J+ .11 |— .13 |4+ .71 |+..30 |— .28 |— .11 | + .06 
pa Pile saemael + .16 |— .14 J+ .13 |— .04 J+ .19 |— .06 |+ .17 |— .09 |— .13 |+ .08 |+ .10 | — .05 
USis. ee Caee 6d! + .59 |— .12 |4+ ..32 |— .26 |4+ .34 |— .25 |— .13 |— .88 |4+ 248 |+ .28 |4+ .32) — .15 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT——DYSON AND OTHERS. 163 


The mean residual without regard to sign is + 0.21’’, from which 
the probable error of a determination ofAw or Ay is + 0.22”’. 

Star 7 is much the brightest. Stars 1, 6, 11, 13 are rather bright. 
Stars 2, 4, 10, 12 are fainter and more comfortable to measure. 
Stars 5 and 8 are very faint. Arcturus is on the plates but is much 
too bright to measure. No measures have been rejected. 

The determination of the deflection on the eclipse plates is based 
on the declinations (vy), and the last column of Table XII shows 
that on the check plates the y comparisons are free from any serious 
systematic error. 

Star 7 is of particular interest; its position near the center of the 
field corresponds to that of x,, x, Tauri in the eclipse field, from 
which the greatest deflection is expected. The images (which are 
not quite round) have the same characteristic shape. Further, the 
brightness of No. 7 corresponds with but exaggerates the brightness 
of x, Tauri, which is the brightest star in the eclipse field. It is there- 
fore a valuable check to find that its systematic error in declination is 
insignificant compared with the displacement (of the order of 1’’) 
afterwards found for x, and x, Tauri. 

The systematic errors in right ascension are larger (provably 
through imperfect driving of the clock). They may affect the dis- 
placement indirectly through the orientation constant, but with 
much reduced effect. Allowing for this reduction in importance 
there appears to be nothing to trouble about. 

The primary purpose of the check plates is thus fulfilled. They 
show that photographs of a check field of stars taken at Oxford and 
Principe show none of the displacements which are exhibited by the 
photographs of the eclipse field taken under precisely similar instru- 
mental conditions. The inference is that the displacements in the 
latter case can only be attributed to presence of the eclipsed sun in 
the field. 

33. We turn now to the differences of scale between Oxford and 
Principe, which are given by the plate constants a, 6, d, e determined 
from the measures. As determined these include the effects of dif- 
ferential refraction and aberration. The latter corrections were cal- 
culated for each plate by the usual formule and applied so as to 
determine the corrected plate constants a’, 6’, d’, e’ free from dif- 
ferential refraction and aberration. Due allowance was made for 
the change in the coefficient of refraction owing to the difference of 
barometer and temperature (about 40°) between Oxford and Prin- 
cipe. The results are as follows (in units of the fifth place of 
decimals) : 


164 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


TABLE XIII.—Check plates, plate constants. 


Uncorrected. Corrected. 
Comparison. 
a b d e a’ b’, d’. e’, b’ +d’ 
Qa Ose or ee Sats pose ae ie +32. 7 |+101.0 |— 87.8 | +58.2 | +32.7 |+ 98.4 |— 90.4] +32.1} + 80 
Bo byt. a SERIA: ASL +26.2 |— 16.0 |-+ 25.9 | +53.6 | +30.4 |— 22.5 |4+ 19.4] +314] — 3.1 
Sar Cl chs <P anes sate ee +31. 5 |+192.5 |—178.5 | +64.8 | +35. 8 |4+182:6 |—183.4 | +42.1} — 0.8 
POs cin os amiss Hee wetting +28, 2 |+-165. 0 |—146.8 | +69.8 | +32.1 |+157.8 |—154.0 | +45.0] + 3.8 
Mls os fs See ree Sen es ee +21.6 |— 76.2 |+ 70.6 | +61.4 | +25.2 |— 80.5 |+ 66.3] +35.7| —142 
RY (CoP pe Bee be a elon WO a Sy (er AA |e ae fe a ee cr td a’ Ree Pa | sl Be +37.3 | — 1.3 


The sign of the results shows that the scale of the photographs is 
larger at Principe than at Oxford; in fact, the focus must have been 
set about 1.2 millimeters farther out (apart from any change of 
length compensated by expansion of the photographic plates). As 
the error in focusing was probably not more than 0.5 millimeter, the 
greater part of this shift must be due to the focal length of the lens 
combination increasing with temperature more rapidly than the 
linear expansion of the glass. 

If the only difference were a change of focal length, we should 
have a’=e’. There is a fairly strong indication that e’ is greater 
than a’. This is no doubt due to a change in the definition caused by 
the ccelostat mirror or by a shift of the object-glass lenses on the 
journey; and as it will presumably affect. the eclipse plates in the 
same way, it is best to adopt the values of a’ and e’ as determined, 
rather than to take a mean. In so doing we shall at any rate not 
exaggerate the displacement, which depends mainly on the y measures 
and is reduced by adopting too large a value of ¢’.° 

The difference 6’—d’ merely gives the: relative orientation of the 
two plates as placed face to face. The sum 6’+d’ practically van- 
ishes, as it should do. However, for consistency we adopt the small 
value found. | 

From the internal discordances of our determination of ¢’ (the 
most important of these constants) the probable error of the mean 
is 42.1. This, as shown later, will cause a probable error of our 
final determination of the deflection, reduced to the limb of the sun, 
of amount +0.14’’, affecting all determinations systematically. 
Errors in the other constants have much smaller influence. 


THE ECLIPSE PLATES. 


34. The eclipse plates from K to S show no star images. After 
that the cloud lightened somewhat, and some images appear on the 


°It happens that it is also reduced, but to a less extent, by using too small a value 
of a’. 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT——DYSON AND OTHERS. 165 


remaining plates. The sky was never clear and nothing fainter 
than 5.5" is shown. The cloud was variable in different parts of the 
plate, so that the brightness of the images varies erratically and the 
diffusion is also variable. 

In order to obtain results of any weight the stars 4 and 3 (x, and 
%, Tauri), which theoretically should be strongly displaced, must be 
shown. They appear on all plates from T to Z, and being near the 
center of the field have good images. They are relatively rather 
faint on plate U, but are bright on the other plates. The appearance 
of the remaining stars is as follows: 

Piate T.—6 bright; 10 faint. 

Plate U.—6, 10 very bright; 11 faint. 

Plate V.—6 bright; 10 fair. 

Plate W.—5, 6 good; 10 diffused. 

Plate X.—5, 6, 11 good. 

Plate Y.—5, 6, 11 faint, diffused ; 12 very faint. 
Plate Z.—5, 6, 11 faint, diffused. 

The possibility of a determination of deflection practically depends 
on the appearance of star 5. The relative displacement of 5 and 
3 is on Ejinstein’s theory, 1.2’’ in the y-coordinate. Further, the 
x-measures of 5 are needed for a really good determination of the 
orientation. Star 11 can scarcely take its place. It is true that the 
relative displacement is then 0.8’; but the orientation affects this 
with a much larger factor, and the orientation is badly determined 
in the absence of star 5. 

Accordingly plates W and X are the only ones likely to give a 
trustworthy result. X is somewhat the better plate of the two.’° 
Measures have been made of the faint diffused images on plates Y 
and Z; but, as might have been expected, they are hopelessly dis- 
cordant and can not be reconciled by any adopted value of the de- 
flection. 

35. We give the measures of plates X and W in detail. Both com- 
parisons of X were measured at Principe a few days after the eclipse. 
Plate W, which was not developed until after the return of the 
expedition, was measured at Cambridge on August 22-23." 


10 Plate X has also the merit of a short exposure, 3 seconds. We should mistrust the 
w-measures of a long exposure with variable cloud and imperfect guiding, because there is 
nothing to show that the images of the different stars are formed at the same time. 

«Of the comparisons of check plates, w1—b1 was measured on August 20, and the others 
about the end of September. Previous measures had been made at Principe with three 
earlier check plates taken on the night of May 16; but a slight change of adjustment of 
tilt was made the following day (thereafter it remained unaltered until the eclipse), and 
the small change of focus allowed for in the comparisons. These furnished a provisional 
scale which was used to obtain preliminary results. Afterwards the measurement of check 
plates was undertaken in a more systematic way, using later plates about which no doubt 
could arise, and giving the results printed above. No change of any importance was 
found ; the final value for the deflection at the limb was reduced by 0.4’’ compared with 
the provisional value, but this was mainly due to the adoption of separate values of a’ 
and e’ instead of adopting the mean, and to recalculation of the differential refraction 
and aberration, 


12573°—21——__12 


166 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


PLATE X. 


(1) Comparison with Oxford plate G,—The differential refrac- 
tion for all the eclipse plates is | 


a= — 46.5, b,d=+82, e=—27.0, 


the differential aberration being zero. 
For the comparison plate G, | 
a= —19.1, 6,d = +0.7, e = — 28.3. 
Hence for X—G, 
a= —2274,b,d= +756 +4 13. 

To these must be added the terms representing change of scale, 

determined from the check plates (Table XIII.), viz. 
a=-+81.2,6, d= — 0.6,e = + 37.3. 

Hence the whole difference X — G, is given by 

a=+38.8, bd=+69, e= +386. 

The first step is to take the measured differences Ax, Ay, and take 
out the parts av + by,dx-+ ey, due to these terms, leaving the cor- 
rected differences A,a, Ayy. 

A,a@ and A,y contain (1) the Einstein displacement, if any and 
(2) the unknown relative orientation of the plates giving rise to 
terms of the form, Av = + 6y, Ay=— Oa. These two parts could 
be separated by a least-squares solution, but in view of the poor 
quality of the material it seems better to adopt a method which 
keeps a better check on possible discordances and shows more clearly 
what is happening. The Einstein displacement in « is small, and 
we might perhaps neglect it altogether in determining @ from the 
g-measures. However, it is clear from preliminary trials that a 
displacement exists—whether the half or the full Einstein dis- 
placement. Hence if we take out three-quarters of the full Einstein 
displacement (2E,) we divide the already slight effect by 4, and at 
the same time deal fairly between the two hypotheses.??. The residuals 
A,a result. 

From the equations A,z=c-+@y we determine by least squares 
the orientation 9, which is found to be +163. Removing the term 
163y we obtain the residuals A,2. . 

Turning to A,y, we correct for the orientation by taking out the 
term —163a, leaving A,y. These values should agree for all the 
stars, except for the displacement and the accidental error. 


ei Ree Liaise I lie SAN aia ili AGE les oe ER I 
“The smaller the displacement provisionally assumed for #, the larger is the displace- 
ment ultimately found from y (see p. 171). 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 167 


Denoting the value of the displacement at 50’ (or 10 réseau-in- 
tervals) from the center of the sun by x, the y-displacements of 
the various stars will be xa, where «, has the values tabulated below. 
We can therefore obtain x, by solving by least-squares the equations 


Ay = f+ ey. 


The radius of the sun during the eclipse was 15.78’. Hence the 
full Einstein displacement of 1.75’’ corresponds to 0.55’’ at 50’ dis- 
tance, or, in our units of 0.003’”, x= 184. It is easily seen that the 
value is somewhere near this, and it is therefore easier and more 
instructive to take out EK, = 184¢,, and determine the correction to « 
from the residuals A,y. We also remove the mean of A,y obtaining 
the final residuals. 

The normal equations corresponding to equations of condition 


residual = df + ay ox 


are found to be 
5df-+2.838% —— 1 


2.8387/-+4.833% — +64 
whence 


3.236% = +64, 
ox = +20. 


An increase of 20 on 184 corresponds to an increase of 0.19’ on 
1.75’’. Hence the resulting deflection at the limb is 1.94.’’ 

Since the full deflection is indicated we complete the results for x 
by taking out the remaining 4E,, obtaining A,z, and then tabulate 
the residuals from the mean values—5942. 

The successive steps are shown below: 


Resid. 

Star. oS YIN 3-82, 6-9y. At. Ez. Ast. | +163y.] “at. Aat.. | Canit= 

; 0-003’) 

PPh yy ree 228 1.39 |—3, 916 5 86 |—4, 007 —76 |—3,931 | 2,021 |—5, 952 |—5, 927 + 15 
EF eos ace, aS 12.40 |—5, 518 47 20 |—5, 585 —79 |—5, 506 478 |—5, 984 |—5, 958 — 16 
val Bel eine 17. 34 |—2, 869 66 129 |—3, 064 —54 |—3,010 | 3,051 |—6, 061 |—5, 043 —101 
Bia eles wa aes 17. 48 |—2, 924 66 121 |—3, 111 —69 |—3,042 | 2,869 |—5,911 |—5, 888 + 54 
Spey 4442 19. 87 |—1, 568 75 172 |—1,815 |, + 3. |+1,818'|. 4,075 |—5,893 |—5, 894 | . + 48 
Star y Ay 6-92 38-6y Ai. | —163z Assy Ey Ay. ay Resid 

i ease Wes 12.40 | 6,398 10 479 | 5,909 |— 227) 6,136] + 6] 6,130] +0.03 + 5 
by cxpcas lps ae SA 2.93 | 4,121 86 113 | 3,922 |—2,021 | 5,943 | —127] 6,070 | —0.69 — 55 
Aerie ciee ee 18.72 | 4,512 120 722 | 3,670 |—2,826 | 6,496 | +234] 6,262 | +1.27 +137 
Ba...) Oe 97.60 4,236 121 679 | 3,436 |—2,849 | 6,285 | +272] 6,013] +1.48}] —112 
a 24.99 | 4,148 137 965 | 3,046 |—3,239 | 6,285] +136| 6,149] +0.74] + 24 


168 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


(2) Comparison with Oxford plate H,.—The reductions are simi- 
lar and are given in a rather more condensed form below. The 
theoretical plate constants are 


a—+3.8, 6,d=+8.3, e=—-+38.6. 


Star At Ait At +10y Ast At Resid 
TYSSS: 5 ISR e 7, 290 7, 182 7, 258 124 7, 134 7, 159 +235 
BEGEE oat at dceuge 6, 751 6, 680 6, 759 29 6, 730 6, 756 —168 
A aR) ea ae has 7, 126 6, 905 6,959 187 6, 772 6, 790 —134 
See Sees esta oat 7, 320 7, 108 7,177 176 7,001 7,024 +100 
OY SAA be 2 7,429 7, 147 7, 144 250 6, 894 6, 893 — 31 
Star Ay Aw —10z Aggy. Ey Ay Resid 
te eer a es 1, 586 1,095 — 14 1, 109 + 6 1, 103 +172 
Deresesueaosee see 858 642 —124 766 —127 893 — 38 
Bee secs lnseeee 1, 881 1,015 —173 1, 188 +234 954 + 23 
Doe eaen sega 1, 785 961 —175 1, 136 +272 864 — 67 
Gira Slee aan Sad 1, 909 779 —199 978 +136 842 — 89 


The normal equations are 


58f+2.833% = +1 
2.838f-+4.830% = —105 
whence 
3:238%) 25/105, 
One 220 


The corresponding deflection at the limb is 
1.75’ —0.31’’=1.44.”" 


Piate W. 


Although the exposure was only 10 seconds the images have jumped 
in right ascension, so that the appearance is dumb-bell shaped. They 
are, however, symmetrical, so that fair measures of x can be made; 
the y measures on which the result chiefly depends are unaffected. 
Star 10 is very diffused in right ascension. 

(1) Comparison with Oxford plate D,—Theoretical plate con- 
stants . : 

a=+4.9, b,d=+65, e=+39.7. 


Star. be At. Aree pi 2Ex. Aot. +91y. Ast. Ast. Resid. 


Bet PAE 12.40] 2,450] 2,370 —79,| 2,449 267] 2,182] — 2,208 + 40 
ese: bay 17.34]  3,948| 3,741 —54| 3,795] 1,704] 2,091] 2, 109 — 59 
x Ne It 17.48] 3,834] 3,634 —69.| 3,703 |. 1,602 | 2,101. . 2,124 — 44 
6.0 2t ae ee 19.87] 4,525} 4,266 +3] 4,263] 2,275] 1,988] 1,987 —181 


‘DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 169 


Star. y Ay Aw —91x Asy. Ey Asy ay Resid 
Selaeeored - 2.93 5, 320 5,123 | —1,128 6, 251 —127 6, 378 —0. 69 + 70 
Se a 18, 72 5, 745 4,889 | —1,578 6, 467 +234 6,233 | 1-127 ae 
3 loans 17.60 5,911 5,098} —1,591 6, 689 +272 6,417] +1.48 +109 
IS, A 24. 99 5, 628 4,507 | —1,808 6, 315 +136 6,179 | +0. 74 —129 
Masons. ee: 27.21 5, 616 4,389 | —2,057 6, 446 +114 6,332| +0.62 + 24 


Normal equations 
53f+3.42d%= —1 
3.4267+5.218x= —62 
whence 
2.878% —61 
ox 
Hence deflection at the limb is 


1.75’ —0.207’ 1.55’, 


(2) Comparison with Oxford Plate I,—Theoretical plate con- 
stants 
a=+4.0, b,d=+9.1, e=+38.8. 


Star. AG Ai. Ao. —30y. Ast. At, Resid. 
Behe pick. ents J 5,050 4,973 5,052 — 88 5,140 5, 166 + 46 
Casto sea de 4,732 4, 493 4,547 —562 5, 109 5, 127 + 7 
ie ek ae 4, 622 4, 392 4, 461 —528 4,989 5, 012 —108 
6. eet PON es 4, 635 4,329 4, 326 —750 5,076 5,075 — 45 
hCG a alist deci 4, 764 4, 496 4, 409 —816 5, 225 5,219 + 90 
Star. AY. Ay. +302. Asy- Ky. Assy. Resid. 
ee ee —6, 824 —7, 051 372 —7, 423 ah —T, 296 =o 1s 
2, Sshecnntulamalagaee —5, 751 —6, 635 520 —7, 155 +234 —7, 389 —108 
eee Hse —5, 609 —6, 451 524 —6, 975 +272 —7, 247 + 34 
G23 5 hageiee days! —5, 425 —6,576 596 —7, 172 +136 —7, 308 — 27 
(0 et? Sr eee ree ges —5, 109 —6, 371 678 —7, 049 +114 —7, 163 +118 


Norma] equations 
5df-+3.423n—= +2 
3.428f-+5.218x= —24 
whence 
2.878%= —25 
su= —9., 


Hence deflection at the limb is 


1.757” —0.08’’ =1.677". 


170 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Prats U. 

Comparison with Oxford Plate K,.—Since Plate U shows some 
good images it has been examined, althotieh owing to the absence 
of star 8 the weight is small. The measures were made at Principe. 

Theoretical plate-constants 


ee ed Peg” le hare 


Star. 2 At. Ait. +240y. Ez. Ast. Resid, 
TFTA a a 1.39 2, 905 2, 791 2, 976 —101 — 84 —147 
a RRR ex 17.34 4, 508 4, 292 4, 493 aN —129 —192 
SP Spl enycioh aia, See hetate 17. 48 4, 626 4, 420 4,224 — 92 +288 +225 
Beta st aie Ys a 19. 87 6, 270 5, 992 5, 998 ae =)40 ae 
(Gur es 22. 60 7,110 6, 805 6, 530 fae +252 +189 

Star y AY Ay —240x. Ky AW Resid. 
1113S SMe ON 12. 40 9, 026 8,547 — 334 a6 8, 875 — 
TIC A AT 18. 72 5, 846 4, 986 —4, 162 +234 8,914 — 55 
Sih ete Lee. 17. 60 5, 985 5, 165 —4,195 +272 9, 089 +120 
CANON I PEN 24. 99 5, 458 4, 339 —4,769 +136 8, 972 +. 3 
ACT) SESS Sy eee tae 27, 21 4,911 3, 684 —5, 424 +114 8, 994 + 25 


In this case it is not possible to determine the orientation with 
sufficient accuracy from the v-measures; the value here applied is an 
arbitrary preliminary value. We accordingly make a least-squares 
solution from both w-and y-residuals to determine the correction to 
the orientation, 86, as well as 8c, éf, = On. 

The result is 

S0= +2, du== +121. 


This gives the deflection 2.90’’. 

The probable error is, however, --0.87’’, so that the result is practi- 
cally worthless. Further, it is much more likely to be affected by 
systematic error than the previous results. 

The large probable error is partly due to the large residuals which 
are greater than in the previous measures; in particular star 3 is 
unduly faint. If the same accuracy had been obtained, the theo- 
retical weight would have been half that of Plates W and X; 
but having regard to possible systematic error, probably a quarter 
weight would more nearly represent the true value. 

This determination is ignored in the subsequent discussion. 

36. It is easy to calculate the effects of any errors in the adopted 
scale, orientation, etc., on the final result (deflection at the limb). 
We give some illustrations. 

An error in the adopted scale of y of 10 units (in the fifth place of 
decimals) would lead to an error 0.68’ in the result from either plate. 
Thus the probable error +2.1 in the determination of e’ gives a 


DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 171 


probable error +0.14’’ in the final result; or, if we adopted the largest 
(rather discordant) value found fore’ instead of the mean, we 
should reduce the result by 0:52’’. 

An error of 10 units in the orientation gives an error in the result 
of 0.45’’ for plate X, and 0.22’” for plate W. It is therefore of less 
importance, and further it is not likely to be systematic. 

Errors in the measurement of 2 only affect the result through the 
orientation. For plate X, a probable error of +0.20’’ in the a- 
measures would give an error +4.0 in the orientation, leading to an 
error -+0.18’’ in the result; whereas an error of the same magnitude 
in the y-measures gives directly an error +0.35’’ in the result. For 
plate W, the probable error of +0.20’’ in a gives an error +3.5 in the 
orientation and -++0.08’’ in the result, compared with +0.38’’ for 
similar inaccuracy in y. It is particularly fortunate that the x-meas- 
ures are so unimportant for plate W, because, as miei mentioned, 
the images trailed on that: plate. 

Finally, it will be remembered that in order not to commit our- 
selves to the Einstein hypothesis prematurely we neglected the correc- 
tion #E, in determining the orientation. This will make a difference 
of 0.029’ in the results from plate W and 0.092’’ from plate X. The 
effect is that the deduced deflection needs to be decreased, and the 
mean correction —0.06’’ should be applied to the mean result obtained 
or rather to make the adopted deflection for x consistent with the 
deduced value from y, the correction needed is —0.04’’, 


DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS. 
37. The four determinations from the two eclipse plates are 


2s ik Gl lg me AA lb ae Nal deo lot ec ei. pepe 1.94’” 
2 el 3 Higley i Mi Made ge 1.44” 
VG SID Fs toe 9 ee ea neues 9 py hi ela Sa ee a 1.55" 
Welles ieudae ole ty sue) et ot meyrl tyng ey ihre 1.67’’ 

Giving. a -mean ;of_.__+_____ in di alla pk N a Aa hy 1.65’’ 


They evidently agree with Einstein’s predicted value 1.75’’. 
The residuals 1* in the separate comparisons reduced to arc are as 
follows. The do not appear to show any special pecularities: 


r-residuals. y-residuals, 
Star. 

G H D I Mean G. H D I Mean 

at au ur ur uw a aw ZA wr ida 
bY bese 8 EOL On Ire eOe Oe re eee eal. Wamereslonocees ws “POLO O. S22 et ee es ease (OME 
pa eae hs Se —0.05 |} —0.50 | +0.12} 40.14} —0.07} -—0.16) —0.11} +0.21 |} —0.04 —0. 02 
Beppe - pats © —0.30} —0.40} —0.18] +0.02} —0.21} +0.41 |} +0.07 | —0.22) =0.32 —0. 02 
Sai Ais +0.16} +0.30} —0.13 | —0.32 0.00] —0.34] —0.20] +0.33]} +0.10 —0. 03 
Gee Se +0.14} —0.09} —0.54} —0.13]} —0.16} +0.07 | —0.27| —0.39} —0.08 —0.17 
TOL A ZO Dye te ONES | FP GLOSS Hers ek I ES ee tg +0.07 | +0.35 |........- 


18 The residuals refer to the theoretical deflection 1.75”, not the deduced deflections. 


172 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The average y-residual is +0.22’’, which gives a probable error for 
y of +0.21’’. It is satisfactory that this agrees so nearly with the 
probable error (0.22’’) of the check plates, showing that the images 
are of about the same degree of difficulty and therefore presumably 
comparable. The probable error of w is +0.25’’, but we are not'so 
much concerned with this. 

The weight of the determination of Ax is about 3 (strictly 3.23 for 
plate X and 2.87 for plate W). The probable error of « is therefore 
+0.12’’, which corresponds to'a probable error of +0.38’’ in the 
final values of the deflection. 

As the four determinations involve only two eclipse plates and 
are not wholly independent, and further small accidental errors may 
arise through inaccurate determination of the orientation, the prob- 
able error of our mean result will be about -+0.25’’.. There is 
further the error of 0.14’ affecting all four results equally, arising 
from the determination of scale. Taking this into account, and in- 
cluding the small correction —0.04’’ previously mentioned, our result 
may be written 1.61’’+0.30’’. 

Tt will be seen that the error deduced in this way from the residuals 
is considerably larger than at first seemed likely from the accordance 
of the four results. Nevertheless the accuracy seems sufficient to 
give a fairly trustworthy confirmation of Einstein’s theory, and to 
render the half-deflection at least very improbable. 

38. It remains to consider the question of systematic error. The 
results obtained with a similar instrument at Sobral are considered 
to be largely vitiated by systematic errors. What ground then have 
we—apart from the agreement with the far superior determination 
with the 4-inch lens at Sobral—for thinking that the present results 
are more trustworthy ?. 

At first sight everything is in favor of the Sobral astrographic 
plates. There are 12 stars shown against 5, and the images, though 
far from perfect, are probably superior to the Principe images. The 
multiplicity of plates is less important, since it is mainly a question 
of systematic error. Against this must be set the fact that the five 
stars shown on plates W and X include all the most essential stars; 
stars 3 and 5 give the extreme range of deflection, and there is no 
great gain in including extra stars which play a passive part. 
Further, the gain of nearly two extra magnitudes at Sobral must 
have meant over-exposure for the brighter stars, which happen to be 
the really important ones; and this would tend to accentuate system- 
atic errors, whilst rendering the defects of the images less easily 
recognized by the measurer. Perhaps, therefore, the cloud was not 
so unkind to us after all. 

Another important difference is made by the use of the extraneous 
determination of scale for the Principe reductions. Granting its 


- DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 173 


validity, it reduces very considerably both accidental and systematic 
errors. The weight of the determination from the five stars with 
known scale is more than 50 per cent greater than the weight from 
the 12 stars with unknown scale. Its effect as regards systematic 
error may be seen as follows. Knowing the scale, the greatest relative 
deflection to be measured amounts to 1.2’’ on Einstein’s theory; 
but if the scale is unknown and must be eliminated, this is reduced 
to 0.67’... As we wish to distinguish between the full deflection 
and the half deflection, we must take half these quantities. Evidently 
with poor images it is much more hopeful to look for a difference 
of 0.6’’ than for 0.3’’.. It is, of course, impossible to assign 
any precise limit to the possible systematic error in interpretation 
of the images by the measurer; but we feel fairly confident that the 
former figure is well outside possibility. 

A check against systematic error in our discussion is provided by 
the check plates, as already shown. Its efficacy depends on the simi- 
larity of the images on the check plates and eclipse plates at Principe. 
Both sets are fainter than the Oxford images with which they are 
compared, the former owing to the imperfect driving of the ccelo- 
stat, which made it impossible to secure longer exposures, the latter 
owing to cloud. Both sets have a faint wing in declination, but this 
is separated by a slight gap from the true images, and, at least on 
the plates measured, the wing can be distinguished and ignored. The 
images on plates W and X are not unduly diffused except for No. 
10 on plate W. Difference in quality between the eclipse images and 
the Principe check images is not noticeable, and is certainly far 
less than the difference between the latter and the Oxford imayes; 
and, seeing that the latter comparison gives no systematic error in 
y, it seems fair to assume that the comparison of the eclipse plates is 
free from systematic error. 

The writer must confess to a change of view with regard to the 
desirability of using an extraneous determination of scale. In con- 
sidering the program it had seemed too risky a proceeding, and it 
was thought that a self-contained determination would receive more 
confidence. But this opinion has been modified by the very special 
circumstances at Principe; and it is now difficult to see that any valid 
objection can be brought against the use of the scale. 

The temperature at Principe was remarkably uniform) and the 
extreme range probably did not exceed 4° during our visit—includ- 
ing day and night, warm season and cold season. The temperature 
ranged generally from 774° to 794° in the rainy season, and about 
1° colder in the cool gravana. All the check plates and eclipse: plates 
were taken within a degree of the same temperature, and there was, 
of course, no perceptible fall of temperature preceding totality. To 
avoid any alteration of scale in the daytime the telescope’ tube and 


174 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


object glass were shaded from direct solar radiation by a canvas 
screen; but even this was scarcely necessary, for the clouds before 
totality provided a still more efficient screen, and the feeble rays 
which penetrated could not have done any mischief. A heating of 
the mirror by the sun’s rays could scarcely have produced a true 
alteration of scale though it might have done harm by altering the 
definition; the cloud protected us from any trouble of this kind. At 
the Oxford end of the comparison the scale is evidently the same for 
both sets of plates, since they were both taken at night and inter- 
mingled as regards date. 

It thus appears that the check scale is levitimately applicable to 
the eclipse plates. But the method may not be so satisfactory at 
future eclipses, since the particular circumstances at Principe are not, 
likely to be reproduced. As regards other sources of systematic 
error, our chief guaranty lies in the comparatively large amount of 
the deflection to be measured, and the test satisfied by the check 
plates that photographs of another field under similar conditions 
show no deflections comparable with those here found. 


V. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 


39. In summarizing the results of the two expeditions, the great- 
est weight must be attached to, those obtained with the 4-inch lens 
at Sobral. From the superiority ofthe images and the larger scale 
of the photographs it was recognized that these would prove to be 
much the most trustworthy. Further, the agreement of the results 
derived independently from the right ascensions and declinations, 
and the accordance of the residuals of the individual stars (p. 152) 
provides a more satisfactory check on the results than was possible 
for the other instruments. 

These plates gave— 

Prom deelinavions sy 220 OSS R ie 2 Seek Le se) SS 1.94” 
From wight ascensionseaqyo3ols wyngnpade ys jeg Se tee yQ067 

The result from declinations is about tiveeb the weight of that from 
right ascensions, so that the mean resultiis 1.98’’, with a probable 
error of about 0,19", 

The Principe observations were generally interfered with by 
cloud. The unfavorable circumstances were, perhaps, partly compen- 
sated by the advantage of the extremely uniform temperature of the 
island. -The deflection obtained was 1.61.’’ 

The probable error is about -+0.30’’, so that the result has much 
less weight than the preceding. 

Both of these point: to the full Sithort iets 1 75’ of Kinstein’s gen- 
eralized relativity theory, the Sobral results definitely, and the Prine 
cipe results perhaps with some uncertainty. There remain the Sobral 
astrographic plates, which gave ‘the deflection 0.93’’, discordant by 


- DEFLECTION OF LIGHT—DYSON AND OTHERS. 175 


an amount much beyond the limits of its accidental error. For the 
reasons already described at length not much weight is attached to 
this determination. 

- It has been assumed that the displacement is inversely propor- 
tional to the distance from the sun’s center, since all theories agree on 
this,;\and, indeed, it seems clear from considerations of dimensions 
that a displacement, if due to gravitation, must follow this law. 
From the results with the 4-inch lens, some kind of test of the law is 
possible though it is necessarily only rough. The evidence is sum- 
marized in the following table and diagram, which show the radial 
displacement of the individual stars (mean from all the plates) 
plotted against the reciprocal of the distance from the center. The 
displacement according'to Einstein’s theory is indicated by the heavy 
line, according to the Newtonian law by the dotted line, and from 
these observations by the thin line, 


Radial displacement of individual stars. 


Caleula- Observa- 
Star. tion. tion. 
au LAA 

VW. p0 ses 0.32 0. 20. 

Ee ee 0.33 0. 32 
Goes 0. 40 0. 56 

PAS FREE 0.53 0.54 

APY CBee DERI ies 0,75 0. 84 
peg St ice 0. 85 0.97 


3.22.26... 0. 88 1.02 


Thus the results of the expeditions to Sobral and Principe can 
leave little doubt that a deflection of light takes place in the neighbor- 
hood of the sun and that it is of the amount demanded by Einstein’s 
generalized theory of relativity, as attributable to the sun’s gravita- 


6 


RADIAL DISPLACEMENT 


2 IN Oy 6 GS Om Ge Ow} 


é 


DISTANCE 90 60 50 49 30 25 


Fia. 2. 


176 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


tional field. But the observation is of such interest that it will prob- 
ably be considered desirable to repeat it at future eclipses. The 
unusually favorable conditions of the 1919 eclipse will not recur, and 
it will be necessary to photograph fainter stars, and these will prob- 
ably be at.a greater distance from the sun. This can be done’ with 
such telescopes as the astrographic, with the object glass stopped 
down to 8 inches, if photographs of the same high quality are ob- 
tained as in regular stellar work. It will probably be best to discard 
the use of cclostat mirrors. These are of great convenience for 
photographs of the corona and, spectroscopic observations, but for 
work of precision of the high order required, it is undesirable to in- 
troduce complications, which can be avoided, into the optical train. 
It would seem that some form of equatorial mounting (such as that 
employed in the eclipse expeditions of the Lick Observatory) is de- 
sirable. 

In conclusion, it is a pleasure to record the great assistance given 
to the expeditions from many quarters. Reference has been made in 
the course of the paper to some of these. Especial thanks are due to 
the Brazilian Government for the hospitality and facilities accorded 
to the observers in Sobral. They were made guests of the Govern- 
ment, who provided them with transport, accommodation, and labor. 
Doctor Morize, director'of the Rio Observatory, acting on behalf of 
the Brazilian Government, made most complete arrangements for the 
expedition, and in this way contributed materially to its success. 

On behalf of the Principe expedition, special thanks are due to 
Sr. Jeronymo Carneiro, who most hospitably entertained the ob- 
servers and provided for all their requirements, and to Sr. Atalaya, 
whose help and friendship were of the greatest service to the observ- 
ers in their isolated station. 

We gratefully acknowledge the loan for more than six months of 
the astrographic object glass of the Oxford University Observatory. 
We are also indebted to Mr. Bellamy for the check plates he ob- 
tained in January and February. 

Thanks are due to the Royal Irish Academy for the loan of the 
4-inch object glass and 8-inch ccelostat. 

As stated above, the expeditions were arranged by the Joint Per- 
manent Eclipse Committee with a allocated by the Government 
Grant Committee. 


WIRELESS TELEPHONY.? 


By N. H. StaucutTer, D. S. M., 


Fingineering Department, Western Electric Co., New York, N. Y., (formerly) 
Lieutenant Colonel, Signal Corps, United States Army. 


[With 6 plates.] 
FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENTS. 


The development of wireless telephony dates back almost as far as 
the original conception of the use of electromagnetic waves for wire- 
less telegraphy. The practical utilization of this method of com- 
munication is, however, a matter of comparatively recent date as con- 
trasted with the much longer period during which wireless telegraphy 
has been a practical accomplishment. This delay in the successful 
utilization of wireless telephony is due to certain differences in the 
fundamental requirements as compared with those for the telegraph. 
These differences and the manner in which the particular difficulties 
incident to the successful accomplishment of wireless telephony have 
been overcome will be explained in detail in succeeding paragraphs. 

Broadly speaking, the principal difference between wireless tele- 
phony and wireless telegraphy lies in the form of the signal which 
has to be transmitted, telegraph signals being obviously far simpler 
in the wave-form of the signal current than are telephone signals. 
The fundamental requirement is in either case that the form of the 
received signal shall faithfully reproduce the form of the trans- 
mitted signal, whether due to the opening and closing of a telegraph 
key or the vibrations of a telephone transmitter diaphragm. 

The essential units required in a complete wireless telephone system 
may be grouped into the transmitting and the receiving elements. 
The receiving elements, being in no respect different from those re- 
quired in wireless telegraphy, will not be described at this point. 
The transmitting elements differ, however, in many respects and 
comprise the following essential units: 

A radio frequency generator. 

A: modulator for controlling the radio frequency current. 

An antenna for radiating the electromagnetic waves pro- 
duced by the radio frequency current. 


1Presented at a joint meeting of the electrical section and the Philadelphia section, 
American Institute of Hlectrical Engineers, held Thursday, Oct. 30, 1919. Reprinted by 
permission from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, January, 1920. 
: 177 


178 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The particular characteristics of these various units are described 
in detail hereinafter. 

Wireless telephony is subject to certain particular limitations in 
the same way as wireless telegraphy, notably that of interference due 
to atmospheric electricity or radio signals foreign to the desired 
signal. 

HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 


The first requirement for any wireless telephone station is a source 
of radio frequency current. whose amplitude from cycle to cycle re- 
mains constant, except when varied by the modulation imposed upon 
it by the voice current. If variations in its amplitude occur, due to 
other causes, these variations will introduce disturbances which will 
cause the system to be deficient in the. effective. transmission; of 
speech. It is at once evident that the original source, of radio. fre- 
quency current, used in wireless telegraphy, namely, the oscillatory 
discharge of a condenser supplied with energy from a low frequency 
source, is entirely unsuited to the purposes of wireless telephony. 

With the development of the Poulsen arc the first successful at- 
tempts at radio telephony were begun. These attempts involved the 
second factor in a wireless telephone station, namely, that of modu- 
lating the radio frequency current, in accordance with the currents 
supplied by a telephone transmitter. The early attempts to accom- 
plish this modulation, by means of microphones inserted directly in 
the antenna circuit or coupled to the circuit in various manners, were 
largely unsuccessful, due to the limitations of the microphone de- 
vices, such as the low current capacity and the small range of varia- 
tion of resistance. 

A. second source of radio frequency current is the high frequency 
alternator, which has been developed in various forms and which has 
been likewise used with limited success for wireless telephone trans- 
mission. The same lack of a suitable modulating device handicapped 
the use of the high frequency alternator until the advent of. the 
audion or vacuum tube. ‘The characteristics of the vacuum tube have 
been fully described in many recent. publications, and will be dis- 
cussed in this paper only in so far as these characteristics are directly 
applicable to the problems of wireless telephony. It will be seen 
from this subsequent discussion that the vacuum tube -possesses in a 
remarkable manner the precise characteristics required for the gen- 
eration and modulation of radio frequency current for low power 
wireless telephone stations, and for the detection and amplification 
of radio signals of any character whatsoever. Its influence on the art 
of wireless telephony may well be compared with the influence of the 
gas engine on aviation. 


WIRELESS TELEPHONY—SLAUGHTER. 179 
VACUUM TUBB. 


The requirements of a radio frequency generator may be grouped 
as follows: 

The desired frequency may range roughly between the values 
of 15,000 and 6,000,000 cycles per second. 

The frequency for any particular generator may be required 
to vary over a considerable range, in some cases as much as 
several octaves. In other cases, a single value of frequency is 
sufficient. " 

The frequency when set at a particular value should remain 
substantially unaffected by ordinary changes in the physical or 
electrical conditions associated with the station. 

The current delivered by the generator should approximate 
a sine wave as closely as possible. 

The required output for different classes of stations may vary 
from less than one watt to several hundred kilowatts. 

The efficiency of the generator should be reasonably high 
though not necessarily comparable with the efficiencies obtained 
from ordinary types of generators. 

When used as an oscillator or radio frequency generator associated 
with properly designed circuits, the vacuum tube will meet all of 
these requirements, with the exception that the power output of 
vacuum tubes as at present constructed is limited to not more than a 
few hundred watts per tube. 

The requirements of a modulator for radio telephony may be 
grouped as follows: 

The modulator should be actuated by the current from 
an ordinary microphone telephone transmitter or its equiva- 
lent. 

The modulator should faithfully reproduce, in its effect 
upon the radio frequency current, the wave-form of the 
telephone or speech current. 

The modulator should be capable of almost completely 
modulating the output of radio frequency generators whose 
power outputs may cover the range indicated above. 

These requirements are fulfilled to a remarkable extent by the 
vacuum tube used in properly designed circuits. 

Although the vacuum tube was invented in 1906, its development 
into a sufficiently practical form to be useful for wireless telephony 
was comparatively slow. This development was greatly accelerated, 
beginning in 1912, when the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. 
became interested in the vacuum tube for use in telephone repeaters. 
Rapid improvements were made in the design and construction of 
vacuum tubes, and at the same time experiments were conducted look- 


180 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ing to the use of the vacuum tube in wireless telephone apparatus. 
As a result of these experiments, the transmission of speech from 
Washington, D. C., to Paris and Honolulu by wireless telephone oc- 
curred during the year 1915. In these experiments the vacuum tube 
was used as a radio frequency generator, a modulator, a detector, and 
amplifier. 

The possibilities of the vacuum tube for wireless telephony. hav- 
ing been partly disclosed by the above experiments, the Navy De- 
partment became actively interested in the development of wireless 
telephone apparatus for use on battleships. Experimental sets were 
developed by the Western Electric Co. and extremely promising re- 
sults were secured. The Signal Corps was likewise interested in the 
development of apparatus for the Army, but experiments had not 
proceeded to the point where any satisfactory apparatus had been 
developed prior to the declaration of war by this country. 


FIELD OF MILITARY APPLICATION. 


Prior to the beginning of the European War the use of wireless 
telegraphy in military operations had been limited to an extremely 
narrow field, while wireless telephony had been used to an entirely 
negligible extent. The communication requirements for the armies 
engaged in the trench-warfare style of conflict emphasized the need 
of radio communication, and accordingly the extent and variety of 
the apparatus for wireless telegraphy increased rapidly. At the 
time this country entered the war wireless telegraphy comprised an 
extremely important and extensive part of the communication sys- 
tems employed on the western front. ‘The development of wireless 
telephony, however, had not proceeded to the point where satisfac- 
tory apparatus was available for use by the military forces. The 
particular field which most urgently required its use was the airplane 
communication system. The limitations imposed on the use of wire- 
less telephony, such as greater weight and complication of the appa- 
ratus and complete lack of secrecy, had hitherto prevented favorable 
consideration of wireless telephony as a substitute for wireless teleg- 
raphy. The particular requirements of the airplane communication, 
however, introduced certain advantages which more than compen- 
sated for these factors and made telephony much more desirable 
than telegraphy. The controlling reason for the use of the wireless 
telephone lay in the fact that its use eliminated the necessity of a 
knowledge of the telegraph code on the part of the aviator. An 
additional advantage lay in the greater speed with which the tele- 
phone transmission can be effected. 

Inasmuch as the airplane wireless telephone set comprises not only 
the most interesting example of the use of wireless communication 


WIRELESS TELEPHONY—SLAUGHTER. 181 


during the war, but furnishes also a remarkable example of the 
rapidity with which the engineering and manufacturing facilities 
of this country were adapted to war-time needs, a detailed summary 
of the development, production, and operation of this set forms an 
important part of the general subject of wireless telephony. 


HISTORICAL REVIEW. 


Almost immediately following the declaration of war by this 
country the Chief Signal Officer of the Army issued orders for the 
development of an airplane wireless telephone set which was to 
furnish telephone communication between the different airplanes of 
a squadron and also to furnish communication between an airplane 
and a ground station. The fundamental requirements for this set 
were based partly on information furnished by the Allies and partly 
on the experience of the United States Signal Corps in the prewar 
experiments in airplane radio telegraphy and telephony. The actual 
development work was intrusted to the engineering department of 
the Western Electric Co., with provision for the necessary airplane 
facilities and information to be supplied by the Signal Corps as 
required. The progress of the development work was extremely 
rapid, successful communication being established between an air- 
plane and a ground station within six weeks from the date the de- 
velopment was started. The evolution of a complete design suited 
to commercial production likewise proceeded very rapidly, so that 
by December, 1917, only six months from the time the development 
work was started, the design of the complete equipment had reached 
the stage where production of the sets in quantity could be author- 
ized. As early as October, 1917, the apparatus had been developed 
to a sufficiently complete extent to warrant sending samples to the 
expeditionary forces for test under conditions existing at the front. 

Because of the extreme need for the earliest possible delivery of 
apparatus in large quantities to meet the needs of the airplane pro- 
gram of the United States the production of airplane telephone sets 
was begun prior to the completion of the experimental work. As 
further experiments indicated the need of modification or refine- 
ments in the design the necessary changes were incorporated in the 
process of manufacture, so that the sets delivered in the spring of 
1918 embodied the results of experimental work extending almost 
up to the date of completion of the sets. 

Beginning early in the summer of 1918 the development of an 
improved type of set was begun, and at the time of the armistice 
this development had reached the point where practical trials of 
the completed sets were in progress. The essential differences be- 

12573°—21——_18 


182 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


tween the original type of set and this new set are described in 
some detail in succeeding paragraphs. 

The production of several thousand of the airplane wireless tele- 
phone sets in the brief space of a few months involved many prob- 
lems of an extremely unusual and difficult nature. As an example 
may be cited the production of the vacuum tubes required for use in 
the sets. Prior to the war the vacuum tubes had never been pro- 
duced at rates greater than a few hundred tubes per week. At the 
time of the armistice the production of these tubes in one factory 
alone was in excess of 25,000 per week, the largest part of which was 
intended for use with the airplane wireless telephone sets. The prob- 
lem of devising methods for testing the completed sets involved the 
development of unusual testing facilities and the creation of a large 
organization of inspectors to handle the sets as rapidly as they were 
delivered from the factory. It was obviously impossible to test each 
completed set in an airplane before considering it as finally accepted, 
so that the formulation of the testing specifications involved the de- 
velopment of tests which would approximate the conditions encoun- 
tered on airplanes and at the same time would be adapted to factory 
methods of testing. 

Before the development of the airplane wireless telephone sets had 
proceeded even to the point where success was assured, it became 
apparent to those involved in the work that the production of a satis- 
factory set was by no means the complete solution of the problem. 
The successful use of the equipment would undoubtedly require a con- 
siderable amount of training of the aviators and a very considerable 
period of experiment with the trained aviators using the equipment 
before its limitations and its possibilities could be even approximately 
determined. Accordingly preparations were made in advance of the 
delivery of the first production sets, to institute a course of training 
which was intended both to familiarize the aviator with the actual use 
of the set and to work out the method of use; in other words, the 
tactics of a voice-commanded airplane squadron. As early as May, 
1918, groups of airplanes using the wireless telephone sets were being 
trained in the use of this equipment and were being drilled in the 
evolutions which the equipment made possible. In June, 1918, a 
squadron of 39 airplanes, equipped with wireless telephone sets, went 
through a course of drill in the air in such a manner as to demon- 
strate the remarkable possibilities of a voice-commanded squadron. 
Subsequently the training of aviators in the tactics of “ V. C.” flying 
progressed at a rapidly increasing rate, so that at the time of the 
signing of the armistice many thousand flights had been made. The 
record of these flights is a glowing tribute to the efficiency of the 
design of the airplane wireless telephone sets, which performed in 
such a manner as to give far less trouble than the airplane engine. 


WIRELESS TELEPHON Y—SLAUGHTER. 188 
AIRPLANE SETS. 


At the outset of the war-time development work on the airplane 
wireless telephone apparatus the requirements which the apparatus 
would have to meet and the particular conditions under which it 
would operate were largely unknown; this information became ap- 
parent more or less gradually during the progress of the development 
work, which fortunately proceeded along such lines as to substan- 
tially comply with the requirements as they developed. As originally 
conceived, these requirements may be briefly stated as follows: 


The apparatus should be capable of effecting reliable 
telephone communication between two airplanes at distances 
up to 2,000 yards. 

The weight of the apparatus should be the minimum pos- 
sible consistent with meeting the range requirements and 
other conditions imposed on the operation. 

The apparatus should be of the simplest possible construc- 
tion and should require the minimum amount of adjustment 
or manipulation by the aviator. 

It was realized that special conditions would be encountered on the 
airplane which would make the development work extremely difficult 
and would require radical departures from any previous practice. 
Among these special conditions may be mentioned the tremendous 
noise and vibration created by the engine and wind, the necessity of 
reducing the fire hazard to a minimum, and, above all, the extremely 
essential condition that the wireless telephone apparatus must create 
the minimum possible interference with the various other functions 
of the aviator. 

The various elements comprising the complete wireless telephone 
set may be grouped into the following units: Power plant, trans- 
mitting unit, receiving unit, antenna system. 

The details of these various units and the problems encountered 
in their development are briefly described in the following para- 
graphs: 

POWER PLANT. 


The preliminary experiments with various types of apparatus soon 
determined the power requirements of the apparatus which included 
power supply for the filament and plate circuits of the vacuum tubes 
for both transmitting and receiving circuits and power for the tele- 
phone transmitters. The filament power required was determined 
to be 1.35 amperes at 24 volts and the plate circuit power for the 
transmitting set 0.070 amperes at 275 volts. The plate current for 
the receiving tubes was extremely small, namely, less than 0.004 
amperes, and it was decided to furnish this power from dry batteries. 


184 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


After various arrangements were tried the current for the telephone 
transmitter was obtained by shunting this transmitter about filaments 
of two vacuum tubes which gave approximately the correct voltage 
for operating this transmitter. The 24-volt and 275-volt power is 
obtained from a double voltage direct current generator which is 
driven by an air fan, the complete generator being mounted on one 
of the struts of the landing gear of the airplane and hence being 
directly in the propeller blast. The most difficult problems involved 
in the design of the generator were those related to the excessive 
speed variation and the extremely high maximum speed at which 
the generator was required to operate. The air speed of the plane 
being subject to extremely wide variations and the air fan rotational 
speed varying in 
almost exactly the 
same ratio, it was 
necessary for the 
generator to fur- 
nish its normal 
voltages over a 
speed range of 
4,000 to 12,000 rev- 
olutions per minute. 
This required the 
use of a special 
voltage regulator, 
the circuits of 
which are shown in 
figure 1. This reg- 
iat era ulator depends for 
Fig. 1.—Circuit diagram, wind-driven generator. its operati on upon 
the relation existing between the filament current and the electron 
emission from the filament in a special vacuum tube which has been 
designated as a regulator tube. At the lower limit of the operating 
speed range, namely, 4,000 revolutions per minute, the filament of 
this regulator tube operates at a temperature which gives practically 
no emission of electrons. As the speed of the generator increases 
above this value the voltage rises, and accordingly the temperature 
of the regulator tube filament increases. This results in an extremely 
rapid increase in the number of electrons emitted by the regulator 
tube filament, which in turn causes a rapid increase in the current 
flowing through the differential field and the plate circuit of the 
regulator tube, as shown by the characteristic curves of figure 2. 
This current tends to reduce the total magnetization of the generator, 
and as a result, the voltage regulation is maintained within extremely 
close limits, 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Slaughter. PLATE I. 


WIND-DRIVEN GENERATOR, FAN, AND REGULATOR TUBE. 


WIRELESS TELEPHONY—SLAUGHTER. 185 


While this voltage regulating device operates in an extremely 
satisfactory manner, the excessive speed variation of the generator 
imposes certain other requirements on the generator design which 
make it desirable to reduce this speed variation. The development 
of a constant-speed air fan has progressed practically to the point 
where designs are available for an air fan which will give an almost 
exactly constant rotational speed with a range of air speeds of at 
least 4 to 1. The use of such an air fan on future wind-driven 
generators for airplanes is a practical certainty. 

Various alternatives, such as storage batteries and a dynamotor, 
or a double voltage generator driven directly from the airplane 
engine, were considered and rejected in favor of the generator above 
described. 


0 4000 2000 3000 3000 5000. 6000 ooo G000 3000 10000 4,000 12000 


Tehul?. 
Fic. 1a.—Voltage characteristic, wind-driven generator. 


TRANSMITTING SET. 


The circuits of the transmitting set are shown schematically in 
figure 3. A single vacuum tube of a special type is used for fur- 
nishing the radio frequency current and a similar tube is used for 
modulating the radio frequency current. The method of modula- 
tion employed is known as the “constant current’ method and may 
be described briefly as follows: 

The plate circuits of the vacuum tube oscillator and modulator 
are connected in parallel and are supplied through an inductance 
coil, which tends to maintain the total current constant. The plate 
current taken by the modulator tube is controlled by its grid voltage, 
which in turn is determined by the operation of the telephone trans- 
mitter. ‘These voice frequency fluctuations of the modulator plate 
current cause corresponding variations in the direct current supplied 
to the plate circuit of the oscillator tube, the sum of the two currents 


186 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


at any particular instant being substantially constant. These varia- 
tions in the direct current supply of the oscillator tube result in 
corresponding variations of its high frequency output so that the 
result is a modulated radio frequency current supplied to the antenna. 
The telephone transmitter furnished one of the most difficult 
problems in connection with the design of the transmitting set by 
reason of the fact that this transmitter operates under conditions 
of such extreme noise, due to the wind and engine exhaust. After a 
very extended period of development the present form of transmitter 
was perfected, its improvement 

over the ordinary form being 

PEEP roughly indicated by the state- 


Fe a : : 
rit tryttert}] ment that the ratio of;;noise 
|| ITI IT | signals to speech signals in the 


output of this transmitter is 
probably less than 1 per cent 
of the same ratio for a trans- 
mitter of the usual type. 

Reference to the schematic 
diagram indicates the adjust- 
ments of the transmitting set 
for different wave lengths to in- 
clude only a variable inductance 
ee anan and a variable capacity. Inas- 
rTiTT?TLreriett_tei. much as the apparatus is ad- 
justed for a particular wave 
length before the airplane leaves 
the ground, an artificial an- 
tenna whose constants approximate those of the normal antenna is 
used for making such adjustments on the ground, 


PLATE CURRENT=MILS 


“2.3.45, 6. 7 B. GAONINZNTIF LS 16 
FILAMENT CURRENT 


Fic. 2.—Characteristic curve, regulator tube. 


RECEIVING SET. 


The circuits of the receiving set are likewise shown schematically 
in figure 8. Reference to this figure will indicate that the circuit 
comprises a single resonant circuit, a vacuum tube detector, two 
vacuum tubes used as amplifiers, and a special helmet containing 
the receivers. The detector and amplifier are not particularly novel 
in any respect, but the helmet containing the receivers is of very 
unusual construction. The same noise conditions which were men- 
tioned above for the telephone transmitter likewise affected the recep- 
tion of signals in the telephone receivers. It was accordingly neces- 
sary to develop a special sound-insulating helmet in which the tele- 
phone receivers were mounted in such a way as to exclude almost 
completely from the aviator’s ears all sounds except those emanating 


WIRELESS TELEPHON Y—SLAUGHTER. 187 


from the telephone receivers. The design of a helmet which would 
accomplish this and at the same time not prove to be uncomfortable 
represents one of the most striking accomplishments in the complete 
set. 


AMPLIFIER 
TUBE 


DETECTOR 
REGULATOR 


Fig. 3.—Schematic diagram, airplane wireless telephone. 


) 


SWITCH 
(6 BLADES 


The adjustment of the receiving set is of the utmost simplicity, 
there being only a variable capacity and inductance to adjust for the 


188 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


particular wave length of the received signal. As in the case of the 
transmitting set, these adjustments are ordinarily made before the 
plane leaves the ground, and it is usually necessary for the aviator to 
make in flight only an extremely small adjustment in the capacity to 
insure the proper tuning of the receiving set. Because of the con- 
dition of vibration existing on the airplane and the effect of this 
vibration on the vacuum tubes used in the receiving apparatus, it 
was necessary to devise a mechanical filter which would protect the 
vacuum tubes from these vibrations. The method finally adopted 
consisted of the use of sponge rubber supports for certain elements 
within the set box itself. 

The current required by the plate circuits of the receiving tubes 
and the negative grid potential for the modulator tube of the trans- 
mitting set are furnished by small dry batteries, which consist of 15 
cells of very special construction weighing less than 1 pound and 
having sufficient current capacity to operate the set a few hours a 
day for a considerable number of weeks. The most important re- 
quirement for these batteries, however, was a sufficient length of 
shelf life, inasmuch as a period of several months usually elapsed 
between the date of manufacture and the date of use. Difficulties of 
securing even a few months’ shelf life for cells of such small size 
made the use of standard cells out of the question. Development of 
particular types of containers for the cells and extremely careful 
selection of materials resulted in the satisfactory solution of this 
problem. 

ANTENNA. 


The form of antenna which was adopted for the early experiments 
with the airplane wireless telephone consisted of a wire trailing 
behind the airplane in flight and connected through the apparatus 
with the frame of the airplane as a counterpoise. The length of this 
wire was ordinarily 300 feet. A reel was provided for holding this 
wire and a small weight was attached to the free end to cause it to 
unreel properly after the airplane left the ground. In order to reduce 
the attention required by the aviator in unreeling the antenna a 
special form of reel was devised with a centrifugal governor, which 
limited the unreeling speed to a value which prevented the weight 
from breaking the wire at the end of the unreeling process. The wire 
which was used was a soft braided copper wire made purposely of 
low tensile strength, so that in case this wire became entangled with 
any obstruction during flight no particular strain would be put upon 
the airplane structure before the antenna wire would break. 

The subject of radiation from airplane antennae has perhaps re- 
ceived less attention in proportion to its importance than almost 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Slaughter. 


cecilGNAt Cokes u & apuy 
SSSCPLANE REDIO TRANSheTrinn 
AND RECE.VinG sey 
.. TYPE SC Ries 
SR ws 
$nte# 9 
Ghewe 


TLECTRIG CO 14 


TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING UNIT. 


SIGNAL GORPS U.S 


A ANPLAHE RADIO RECEIVING SET 


2. RECEIVING UNIT. 


TYPE S.C.R.52 
ERIM His ORDER He a 
BADE BE 
WESTERH ELECTRIC OD. 18 


PLATE 2. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Slaughter. PLATE 3. 


RECEIVING UNIT (OPEN). 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Slaughter. PLATE 4. 


COMPLETE TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING SET. 


‘WIRELESS TELEPHONY—SLAUGHTER. 189 


any other phase of airplane wireless telephony. This is partly due 
to the fact that the form of antenna above described possesses ex- 
tremely efficient radiating properties and partly to the fact that 
investigations of the subject require very extensive and painstaking 
measurements involving actual flights of airplanes. The investiga- 
tions conducted during the war, however, included a large number of 
tests of various types of antenna, the principal-object of which was 
to evolve a substitute for the long trailing wire which would be better 
adapted for use on airplanes engaged in acrobatic flying. Obviously 
the movements of an airplane were somewhat restricted by the use 
of this type of antenna. 

Without indicating in detail any of the alternative types of an- 
tenna which were developed and used it may be stated there are a 
number of forms of airplane antenna which offer considerable promise 
of complying with the radiation requirement and at the same time 
offer practically no interference with the movements of the airplane. 

The tactical uses of the airplane wireless telephone called for trans- 
mission and reception on certain airplanes and for reception only on 
other airplanes. The apparatus developed therefor included two 
distinct types, one including both the transmitting and receiving ele- 
ments mounted in a single box, as shown in plate 2, figure 1, while 
the other included only the receiving element, as shown in plate 2, 
figure 2, and plate 3. The complete equipment comprising the 
transmitting and receiving set is shown in plate 4. The complete 
equipment comprising the receiving set only is different with respect 
to the power plant, which in this case consists of a 4-volt storage bat- 
tery. This figure shows two telephone transmitters and two helmets, 
which are used in connection with an interphone system provided as 
an auxiliary to the wireless telephone. This interphone system en- 
ables two persons in the same airplane to converse with each other by 
ordinary telephone, and furnishes in itself a valuable communication 
system entirely exterior to the wireless telephone apparatus. 

Where communication between an airplane and a ground station is 
desired this communication is effected by means of a special ground 
set which has been developed to correspond with the range and wave- 
length requirements of the airplane apparatus. 

In using the apparatus above described, the only manipulation re- 
quired of the aviator is switching from the transmitting to the receiv- 
ing apparatus, or vice versa, as required. Ranges of several miles be- 
tween planes are easily accomplished, and under extremely favorable 
conditions much greater distances have been covered. 


190 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
NEW TYPE OF APPARATUS. 


Experience in the operation of the above type of wireless telephone 
apparatus indicated the desirability of certain improvements, par- 
ticularly along the following lines: 

Reduction in the size of the apparatus units to better 
adapt them to installation in the restricted space available 
on certain types of airplanes. 


Use of very much shorter wave lengths to make possible 
the substitution of antenne which would not interfere with 
the use of the airplane and which would likewise reduce the 
amount of radio interference which would be experienced on 
the western front. 

Accordingly, a new type of set was developed during the summer 
of 1918, the essential elements of which are illustrated in plates 5 
and 6. Practical trials of this equipment have not proceeded suffi- 
ciently to indicate the superiority of this set from the standpoint of 
its use by the aviator. Its superiority, however, from the standpoint 
of installation is self-evident. 


WIRELESS VERSUS WIRE TELEPHONY. 


Any prophecy as to the future of the wireless telephone art should 
take due account of fundamental differences between wire and wire- 
less telephony. While it is conceivable, though not probable, that 
improvements in directive radiation may be evolved which will cause 
the greater part of the waves radiated from a wireless station to 
choose a particular path, rather than to be spread broadcast, as at 
present, there will always be a far more definite and restricted path 
for wire telephone signals than for wireless signals. As a result, it 
may be safely predicted that wireless telephony is not apt to supersede 
wire telephony in any of the fields now occupied by the latter. The 
application of wireless telephony to new fields, where wire telephony 
is either impossible or impractical from economic considerations, will 
furnish abundant opportunity for service of the greatest value. A 
combination of wire and wireless telephony, each in its own field, 
may result ultimately in a telephone system covering the civilized 
world. 

COMMERCIAL FIELD. 


To the average person the most interesting commercial application 
of wireless telephony is transoceanic, such as is suggested by the long- 
distance experiments mentioned above. While the scientific aspects 
of the question are such that the development of suitable apparatus 
for effecting reliable commercial service between such points as New 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Slaughter. PLATE 5. 


NEW TYPE OF AIRPLANE WIRELESS TELEPHONE. 


TRANSMITTING UNIT ALONE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Slaughter. PLATE 6. 


RECEIVING UNIT ALONE. 


CONTROL UNIT ALONE. 


WIRELESS TELEPHONY—SLAUGHTER. _ 191 


York and London is a comparatively simple matter, economic ques- 
tions have up to the present prevented serious consideration of such 
a project. It is entirely conceivable that improvements in the art - 
may soon bring the cost of such a system well within the limits im- 
posed by economic considerations. 

Wireless telephony between ships at sea or between a ship and a 
shore station is a logical supplement to the wireless telegraph service 
now furnished on practically all ocean-going steamships. In this 
case, as in the case of transoceanic telephony, economic considerations 
are apt to retard the extension of this field until the development of 
apparatus less expensive than present types. 

In the field of aviation, however, wireless telephony presents a 
number of advantages which it is believed will result in its rapid 
adaptation to the needs of this service. Entirely aside from the 
popular interest attached to telephone communication between dif- 
ferent airplanes, or between an airplane and a ground station, the 
practical value, particularly of the latter, is sufficient in many cases 
to justify the required expenditure to provide this facility. 

There are various special fields not included in the above which 
may call for the use of wireless telephony, such as communication 
between various islands of a group—for example, the Hawaiian 
Islands—the wireless telephone furnishing in this case trunk lines for 
tying together the telephone exchanges on the various islands. 


MILITARY FIELD. 


The use of wireless telephone apparatus in combatant military 
operations during the war was practically negligible. This should, 
however, not be interpreted as an indication that wireless telephony 
offers no advantages for military purposes, but rather that the 
training of personnel in its use had not proceeded sufficiently to 
warrant its use. Communications within various units of an army 
frequently call for extreme mobility of the apparatus. The pre- 
vailing method of establishing intermittent communication between 
temporary stations joined by wires laid on the ground is obviously 
far from ideal. If wireless telephone apparatus can be developed 
by means of which different centers of command can be kept in con- 
stant touch with each other while all are in motion the advantages of 
such communication will compel its adoption and wide use through- 
out the communication system of the Army. 

In naval operations the use of wireless telegraphy is so wide- 
spread that it forms an indispensable link in the naval communica- 
tions system. For certain kinds of service the advantages offered by 
telephony as compared with telegraphy make it extremely desirable 
that wireless telephone apparatus be developed to meet the require- 


192 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ments. The present state of the art indicates the certainty that this 
can be done. 

In the field of military aviation wireless telephony finds its great- 
est present opportunity for immediate service. The requirements 
of interairplane communication are such that the telephone is 
peculiarly adapted. The use of wireless telephony within an air- 
plane squadron at once makes possible the development of the squad- 
ron into a military unit wherein the various members are subject 
to the command of the leader in exactly the same way as military 
units on land and water. The development of airplane squadron 
tactics is therefore made entirely possible, whereas without the tele- 
phone it is considered that the difficulties of communication between 
various airplanes would have made such a development impossible. 
Communication between airplanes and ground stations comprises an 
equally important phase of the operation of military aircraft. 
Hitherto these communications have been chiefly those for directing 
artillery fire and the wireless telegraph has served this purpose 
reasonably well. The availability of the wireless telephone, however, 
will open up new possibilities in the use of airplane to ground com- 
munication, an example of which is furnished by the present opera- 
tions on the Mexican border. Scouting parties, accompanied by air- 
planes, traverse the extremely mountainous country, with airplanes 
preceding ‘the land forces and at intervals reporting their observa- 
tions. If we imagine each of the scouting parties to be equipped with 
receiving apparatus sufficiently portable so that it does not in any 
way interfere with the movements of the party, it is at once evident 
that they could, without delay, be kept informed of the observations 
of the aviator, by direct telephone communication. This extension 
of range of vision would be of immeasurable value. 

Developments which have occurred during the war period, while 
essentially of a military character, are immediately applicable to both 
military and commercial needs. ‘These developments point the way 
to further progress in the art which it is believed will, within a short 
time, establish wireless telephony as an important element in many 
phases of our military and commercial activities. 


RADIUM AND THE ELECTRON. 
By Sir ErRNEst RUTHERFORD, F.R.S. 


When we view in perspective the extraordinarily rapid progress of 
physics during the last 25 years, we can not fail to be impressed 
with the great significance to be attached to the discovery of X-rays 
by Rontgen in 1895, not only from its intrinsic interest and im- 
portance, but also from the marked stimulus it gave to investigations 
in several directions. In fact, this discovery marks the beginning 
of a new and fruitful epoch in physical science, in which discoveries 
of fundamental importance have followed one another in almost un- 
broken sequence. 

Tt does not fall within my province to discuss the great advances 
in our knowledge that have followed the close study of this pene- 
trating type of radiation, but to indicate, I am afraid very in- 
adequately, the progress in two other directions of advance which 
were opened up by the discovery of X-rays, and have revolutionized 
our ideas of the nature of electricity and the constitution of matter. 

Following Rontgen’s discovery, attention was concentrated on two 
aspects of the problem. On the one side it was thought that the 
excitation of the X-rays might be connected with the phosphor- 
escence set up in the glass of the discharge tube by the impact of 
cathode rays, and experiments were consequently made by several 
observers to test whether substances which phosphoresced under ordi- 
nary light emitted a type of penetrating X-rays. By a fortunate 
combination of circumstances, H. Becquerel in 1896 tried the effect 
of a phosphorescent uranium salt, and this led to the discovery of 
the emission of a penetrating type of radiation, and thus laid the 
foundation of the new science of radioactivity, the further develop- 
ment of which has been attended by such momentous consequences. 

On the other side, the problem of the nature and origin of the 
X-rays led to a much closer study of the cathode rays and to the 
definite proof, as Sir William Crookes had long before surmised, 
that the cathode rays consisted of swift charged particles of mass 
small compared with that of the hydrogen atom. It was soon shown 
that these corpuscles of small mass or negative electrons, as they are 
now termed, could be set free by a variety of agencies, by the action 


1 Reprinted by permission from Nature, Nov. 6, 1919. 
193 


194 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


of ultra-violet light on metals and copiously from glowing bodies, 
while they were ejected with high speed spontaneously from the 
radioactive bodies. 

The interpretation by Lorentz of the Zeeman effect in which the 
spectrum lines were displaced by placing the source of light in a 
magnetic field showed that electrons of the same small mass were 
present in all atoms, and that their vibrations constituted visible 
light. Sir J. J. Thomson early pointed out the significance of the 
electron as one of the units of atomic structure and its importance 
in the mechanism of ionization in gases, and the rapid growth and 
acceptance of electronic ideas owes much to his work and teaching. 
An important stage in advance was the proof by Kaufmann that 
the mass of the electron was entirely electrical in origin. Sir J. J. 
Thomson had shown in 1881 that a charged particle acquired addi- 
tional or electrical mass in virtue of its motion. The variation of 
mass with speed has been shown to be in accord with general theory, 
but is in best agreement with the formula based on the theory of 
relativity. It would be of great interest to compare theory with 
experiment for the highest attainable speed of the electron from 
radium which is so near to the velocity of light that the variation 
of mass with velocity is very rapid. 

The proof that the electron was a disembodied atom of negative 
electricity was a great step in advance in electrical ideas. Informa- 
tion as to the nature of positive electricity is far less precise and 
definite, for no positive electron, the counterpart in mass of the 
negative electron, has ever been observed. In all experiments with 
positive rays and with radioactive transformations where the proc- 
esses are very fundamental in character, no positive charge has ever 
been found associated with a mass less than that of the atom of 
hydrogen. While it is. well to keep an open mind on this funda- 
mental question, the evidence as a whole suggests that there is an 
essential difference in mass between the carriers of positive and nega- 
tive electricity. In fact, such a difference seems to be essential to 
fit in with our knowledge of the structure of atoms. The nucleus of 
the lighest atom, hydrogen, may prove to be the positive electron 
and its much greater mass than that of the negative electron would 
then be ascribed to the greater concentration of the electrical charge 
in the former. 

From consideration of the passage of electricity through gases, 
it had long been surmised that electricity, like matter, was atomic 
in character. The study of the deflection of the cathode rays and 
a-rays in magnetic and electric fields showed that the carriers 
of each type had all the same charge, and the atomic nature of 
electricity was implicitly assumed by all workers. ‘Townsend showed 


RADIUM AND THE ELECTRON—RUTHERFORD. 195 


that the charge carried by the ions in gases was equal to the charge 
carried by the hydrogen atom in the electrolysis of water and made 
the first measurements of this fundamental unit. Other methods of 
attack were developed by Sir J. J. Thomson and H. A. Wilson, and 
by a skillful adaptation of methods Millikan was able to demonstrate 
in a very direct way the unitary nature of electricity and to measure 
the value of the unit charge, probably the most important and 
fundamental constant in physics, with an accuracy, it is believed, of 
one in a thousand. By combining the value of this constant with 
electro-chemical data, the number of molecules in a cubic centimeter 
of gas and the mass of the atoms can be deduced with equal accuracy. 
The convincing proof of the atomic nature of electricity and the 
accurate measure of the fundamental atomic and molecular magni- 
tudes are two of the greatest triumphs of the new era. 

One of the most important properties of X-rays is their power of 
making gases a temporary conductor of electricity. The study of 
this small conductivity led to a clear idea of the transfer of elec- 
tricity through gases by means of charged ions, and the nature and 
difference of the positive and negative ions have been closely studied. 
The proof by Townsend of the production of ions by collision in 
electric fields opened up a new field of investigation and gave us 
for the first time a clear idea of the processes leading up to an 
electric spark. The ionization theory was found to explain the con- 
ductivity produced by radium rays and the conductivity of flames. 
The laws controlling the escape of electricity from glowing bodies 
were closely examined by H. A. Wilson and O. W. Richardson. 

It is a striking fact that these purely scientific researches on the 
conductivity of gases, which had their inception in the Cavendish 
laboratory, and appeared at first to have only an academic interest, 
should so soon have resulted in important practical applications. 
We may instance the use of a hot filament in a low vacuum as a 
rectifier of alternating currents and a detector of electrical waves. 
The supply of electrons from a glowing filament coupled with the 
generation of ions by collision has led to the production of powerful 
electric oscillators and amplifiers for magnifying minute currents to 
any desired degree. These amplifiers have not only been of great 
service in war, but have also rendered possible radiotelephony across 
the Atlantic. Last, but not least, we have the invention of the 
Coolidge X-ray tube, which has played such an important part in 
research and radiography. 

While the mechanism of ionization of gases by X-rays and radium 
rays and the transfer of electricity in ordinary electric fields is in 
the main well understood, it is a striking fact that the passage of 
the disruptive discharge through a vacuum tube, which was the 


196 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


starting point of so many discoveries, is still almost a mystery. 
While, no doubt, some of the main factors involved in the discharge 
are known, the phenomena in gases at low pressure are so complex 
that we are still far from a complete elucidation of the problem. 
This complexity is well instanced, for example, by the sign and 
magnitude of the charges communicated to atoms and molecules in 
the positive rays, which have been so closely studied by Wien and 
Sir J. J. Thomson, and in the hands of the latter have given us a 
very delicate method of chemical analysis of gases in a discharge 
tube. 

The discovery of the electron as a mobile constituent of the atom 
of matter has exercised a wide influence on electrical theory, and 
has been the starting point of attack on numerous electrical prob- 
lems. In these theories the electron may be considered as a point 
charge with an appropriate mass associated with it, and in many 
cases no assumptions as to the nature and constitution of the electron 
itself are involved. One of the first problems to be attacked was the 
passage of electricity through metals where it was supposed that 
the negative electrons are continuously liberated from the atoms, 
and are in temperature equilibrium with the matter. While the 
theories as initially developed by Drude and Sir J. J. Thomson have 
been instrumental in accounting for a number of relationships, they 
are unsatisfactory on the quantitative side. These difficulties have 
been enhanced by the recent discoveries of Kamerlingh Onnes of 
the supraconductivity of certain pure metals at very low tempera- 
tures and the marked departure from the law of Ohm under certain 
conditions. As in the case of the theory of radiation, it may be 
necessary for an ultimate explanation to introduce the ideas of 
quanta as recently proposed by Keesom. Langevin has applied the 
electron theory to the explanation of magnetism and diamagnetism, 
but there are still many difficulties. The suggestion, first proposed 
by Weiss, that there exists a natural unit of magnetism called the 
magneton, analogous in some respects to the atom of electricity, still 
lacks definite confirmation. 

In this brief review reference can be made only to the apparently 
insoluble difficulties in the explanation of the facts of radiation 
brought to light in recent years, and to the application of the theory 
of quanta which has had such a large measure of success in many 


directions. 
RADIOACTIVITY. 


The rapid growth of the subject of radioactivity after the dis- 
covery by Becquerel of the radiating power of uranium was greatly 
influenced by the discovery and isolation of radium in 1899 by Mme. 
Curie, for the radioactive properties of this element were on such a 


RADIUM AND THE ELECTRON—RUTHERFORD. 197 


scale of magnitude that they were difficult to explain and still more 
difficult to explain away. The systematic chemical analysis of 
uranium ores disclosed the presence of new radioactive substances 
like polonium and actinium, while the study of thorium, radium, and 
actinium disclosed the emission of radioactive emanations or gases 
and their apparently remarkable power of conferring temporary 
activity on all bodies in their neighborhood. The changes in activity 
of these substances with time and the different types of radiation 
emitted at first gave an appearance of great complexity and confu- 
sion to the rapidly accumulating mass of facts, but the whole subject 
took on an orderly and systematic development after the transforma- 
tion theory was put forward by Rutherford and Soddy in 1903 as 
an explanation of radioactivity. On this view radioactive matter is 
undergoing spontaneous transformation of its atoms with the ap- 
pearance of a succession of new radioactive bodies, each marked by 
characteristic chemical and radioactive properties. The radiations 
accompany the transformation of atoms and are a measure of the 
rate of transformation. Guided by this theory, the whole sequence 
of changes in the uranium-radium series, the thorium and actinium 
series, were investigated in detail, and in a remarkably brief space 
of time more than 30 new radioactive elements were brought to light 
and their position: in the scheme of radioactive changes determined. 
Special interest attaches to the discovery by Boltwood of the sub- 
stance called ionium, which is directly transformed into radium. 
This afforded a direct experimental method of determining the aver- 
age life of radium with a result that is in close accord with the value 
calculated from the rate of emission of «-particles. The position of 
actinium in the main scheme of changes has occupied much attention. 
The constancy of the relative amount of actinium and uranium in 
uranium minerals showed that it must be derived ultimately from 
uranium, but the activity of actinium is too small to be in the direct 
line of succession. This has led to the view that actinium is a 
branch product at some point of the uranium series where about 6 
per cent is transformed into the actinium branch and 94 per cent 
into the main line of descent. The general evidence indicates that 
this branching occurs near to uranium, and possibly the branch 
product called uranium-Y by Antonoff is the first member of the 
family. Recently the intermediate parent substance of actinium 
itself has been discovered. 

-Whale in the majority of cases the atoms of a radioactive product 
break up in a very definite fashion and in only one way, certain cases 
are known where one substance breaks into two chemically distinct 
substances. Examples of this are radium C, thorium C, and actinium 
C. Usually the transformation is mainly in one direction with a 

12573°—21 14 


198 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


small fraction in the side branch. It is quite probable that further 
study may lead to the discovery of a number of such dual transforma- 
tions. In the violent cataclysm that must accompany the transforma- 
tion of an atom, it is not unexpected that the constituents of the 
residual atom may arrange themselves in more than one configuration 
of temporary equilibrium. 

Much attention has been directed to the properties of the radium 
emanation—the radioactive gas constantly produced by the trans- 
formation of radium atoms. The equilibrium volume of this gas 
from 1 gram of pure radium is only six-tenths of a cubic millimeter, 
but contributes more than three-fourths of the total activity of 
radium. By concentration of purified emanation into fine glass tubes, 
very powerful sources of radiation have been obtained, which have 
proved of great utility both in the laboratory and for therapeutic 
purposes. Although only about one-tenth of a cubic millimeter of 
purified radium emanation has ordinarily been available for experi- 
ments, methods have been devised to determine its spectrum, mo- 
es weight, freezing and boiling points. 

We owe to Hahn the discovery of two fairly long-lived products of 
thorium called mesothorium and radiothorium. The mesothorium, 
which is separated with the radium from ores containing both 
thorium and uranium, is transformed into radiothorium. These 
products can be obtained of activity greater than radium for equal 
weights, and give us another source of powerful radiation. 

The discovery of the production of helium from radium by Ramsay 
and Soddy was of great importance in emphasizing the reality of the 
transformations occurring in radium. Rutherford showed that the 
a-rays which are shot out from radium consist of positively charged 
atoms of helium, so that all radioactive substances which emit a-rays 
give rise to helium. The production of helium by radioactive sub- 
stances explains the occurrence of large quantities of helium in 
uranium and thorium minerals, and indeed the prediction by Ruther- 
ford and Soddy that helium would prove to be a product of radio- 
active transformation was based in part on this fact. 

The great majority of radioactive substances are transformed 
with the expulsion of helium atoms with great velocity, but in a few 
cases swift electrons appear. The appearance of helium in so many 


changes, coupled with the observation that many of the atomic 


weights of many known elements differ by four units—the atomic 
weight of helium—indicates that helium must be one of the secondary 
units of which many of the ordinary elements are built up. It is 
noteworthy that so far no definite evidence has been obtained that 
hydrogen is a direct product of radioactive transformation, although 
its complete absence would be very surprising. 


t 
* 


RADIUM AND THE ELECTRON—RUTHERFORD. 199 


The proof by the Curies of the rapid and continuous emission of 
heat from radium showed clearly the vast amount of energy that 
must be stored up in radioactive matter and released by its transfor- 
mation. This heat emission has been shown to be a secondary effect 
of radioactivity, for it is a measure of the energy of the expelled 
radiations, the greater part being due to the energy of the expelled 
a-particles. 

The transformation of an atom is the result of an explosion of 
intense violence in which a part of the atom, whether a helium atom 
or an electron, is shot out with great speed. In order to produce 
a-, 6-, or y-rays of equal energy to those emitted by radioactive sub- 
stances, potential differences of about 2,000,000 volts applied to a 
vacuum tube would be necessary. These spontaneous radiations have 
been of great utility in studying the ionization, scattering, and other 
properties of particles moving at high speed, while in the very pene- 
trating y-rays we have a type of X-rays of much shorter wave-length 
than can be produced at present or is likely to be produced by 
laboratory methods. 

The properties of the «-rays have been very closely studied and 
their speed and mass have been determined accurately. The definite- 
ness of the range of «-particles, to which Bragg first directed atten- 
tion, is a matter of remark, and so far the apparent disappearance of 
the «-particle while still moving with a high velocity has not been 
adequately explained. The analysis of the @-rays has disclosed the 
presence of groups of electrons emitted at a definite velocity, so that 
the pencil of @-rays deflected in a magnetic field shows a veritable 
magnetic spectrum. The presence of these groups of @-rays appears to 
be connected with the emission of characteristic X-radiation from the 
atom, and the evidence as a whole strongly supports the view that the 
y-rays from radioactive substances, like the X-rays from a vacuum 
tube, contain rays of a wide range of frequency in which the char- 
acteristic rays from the atom predominate. 

Space does not allow me to do more than mention the extraordinary 
delicacy and definiteness of the electrical methods devised for measur- 
ing minute quantities of radioactive matter. By their aid the chemi- 
cal properties of the numerous radioactive elements have been studied 
and their position in the periodic table established. The orderly 
sequence of changes in the chemical properties of successive elements 
in the radioactive series has been shown to be intimately connected 
with the type of radiation, whether a- or $-ray, emitted by the. pre- 
ceding element. One of the most important fruits of these chemical 
investigations has been the proof of the existence of nonseparable 
elements, named isotopes by Soddy, which are identical in ordinary. 
physical and chemical properties, but have different atomic weights. 


200 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


In the case of lead, six isotopes are already known which differ from 
one another either in atomic or radioactive properties. On the nu- 
cleus theory of the atom this indicates that the charges on the nuclei 
are the same, but. that the masses differ. The proof of the presence of 
isotopes promises to open up a new and very fundamental field of 
chemical inquiry which must inevitably exercise a great influence on 
atomic weight determinations and also on our ideas of atomic con- 
stitution. In a recent letter to this journal Merton has indicated that 
the minute change in the wave length of spectrum lines of isotopes 
may give usa simple method of attack on this problem. 

While the subject of radioactivity belongs in essence to the border 
line of physics and chemistry, with affiliations to both sciences, it has 
had numerous connections with other fields of work. The examina- 
tion of the earth’s crust has shown that radioactive matter is very 
widely distributed, and has disclosed, notably through the work of 
Strutt and Joly, that the heating effect due to this matter vitiates to 
a large extent the old arguments of the duration of the earth’s heat. 
While showing that the old views are not tenable, radioactivity has 
at the same time supplied new methods of estimating the age of 
minerals and the duration of geological epochs. The minimum age 
of minerals can be deduced from the helium accumulated from the 
transformation of radioactive matter, and the maximum age from 
the accumulated lead which is the product of both uranium and 
thorium. Now that the atomic weights of the lead isotopes are well 
established, the atomic weight of the lead in a uranium mineral should 
serve as a definite guide to the fraction of lead present which is due 
to the transformation of uranium and thus give a trustworthy esti- 
mate of the age of the mineral. Joly has demonstrated in a striking 
way that the pleochroic halos observed in mica are of radioactive 
origin, and he has also estimated their age. The presence of radio- 
active matter in the atmosphere has been shown to account for its 
electrical conductivity. Just before the war evidence was obtained 
indicating the presence of a very penetrating type of y radiation in 
the upper atmosphere. It is to be hoped that soon a further study 
will be made to determine the nature and origin of this interesting 
radiation. Finally, numerous investigations have been carried out 
to determine the effects of the radioactive rays on living tissue and 
on the growth of plants and organisms. With the increased use of 
radium for therapeutic purposes, it is likely that our knowledge of 
this important field of inquiry will grow rapidly. 

It is a matter of remark that while the study of rad backeniey has 
disclosed in a striking way the transformation of heavy atoms 
through a long series of stages, it has at the same time provided us 
with indubitable proof of the correctness of the old atomic theory of 


RADIUM AND THE ELECTRON—RUTHERFORD. 901 


matter. The electric method devised by Rutherford and Geiger of 
counting single «-particles allows us to count the total number 
of a-particles projected from one gram of radium per second. By 
determining the volume of helium produced by the collected a- 
particles, we have a simple and direct method of determining 
also the number of molecules in a cubic centimeter of helium at 
standard pressure and temperature. This number is in good agree- 
ment with the number found by Millikan by measuring the charge 
on the atom of electricity. On account of the great energy of motion 
a single «-particle can be detected in a variety of ways by the elec- 
trical method, by the scintillations produced in zinc sulphide or the 
diamond, and by its action on a photographic plate. 

The most striking proof of the individuality of the electron, the «- 
particle, and the ion has been given by C. T. R. Wilson by his beauti- 
ful photographs showing the trails of «- and @-particles through gases. 
By a sudden expansion each charged ion produced by the flying 
particle is rendered visible by becoming the center of a visible drop 
of water. In the case of the swift electron, the number of ions per 
centimeter of path is so small that the number may be directly 
counted. These photographs bring out in a vivid and concrete way 
the phenomena accompanying the passage of ionizing types of radia- 
tion through gases, and are in a sense the ultimate court of appeal 
of the accuracy of theories of the properties of these rays. 

The discovery of the electron and of the property of radioac- 
tivity has given a great stimulus to attempts to deduce the structure 
of the atom itself, and numerous types of model atoms have been 
proposed. The great difficulty in these attempts is the uncertainty 
of the relative importance of the réle played by positive and negative 
electricity. In the model atom proposed by Sir J. J. Thomson the 
electrons were supposed to be embedded in a sphere of positive elec- 
tricity of about the dimension of the atom as ordinarily understood. 
Experiments on the scattering of a-particles through large angles as 
the result of a single collision with a heavy atom showed that this 
type of atom was not capable of accounting for the facts unless the 
positive sphere was much concentrated. This led to the nucleus atom 
of Rutherford, where the positive charge and also the mass of the 
atom are supposed to be concentrated on a nucleus of minute dimen- 
sions. The nucleus is surrounded at a distance by a distribution of 
negative electrons to make it electrically neutral. The distribution 
of the external electrons on which the ordinary physical and chemical 
properties of the atom depend is almost entirely governed by the mag- 
nitude of the positive charge. The experiments by Marsden and 
Geiger on the scattering of the e-particles, and also on the scattering 
of X-rays by Barkla, show that the resultant units of charge on the 


202 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


nucleus of an element is about equal to its atomic number when ar- 
ranged in order of increasing atomic weight. Strong proof of the 
correctness of this point of view has been given by the work of Mose- 
ley on the X-ray spectra of the elements, for he has shown that the 
properties of an element are defined by a whole number which changes 
by unity in passing from one element to the next. It is believed that 
the lightest element, hydrogen, has a nuclear charge of 1, helium of 
2, lithium of 3, up to the heaviest element, uranium, of charge 92. 

Radioactive evidence indicates that the nucleus contains both posi- 
tively charged masses and negative electrons, the positive charge 
being in excess. Apart from the difficulty on the ordinary laws of 
electric forces of explaining why the nucleus holds together there is 
a fundamental difficulty of accounting for the stability of the ex- 
ternal electrons on the ordinary laws of dynamics. To overcome 
this difficulty Bohr has applied the quantum theory to define the 
position of the electrons and to account for the spectra of the lighter 
atoms and has made suggestions of the structure of the simpler 
atoms and molecules. Space does not allow me to discuss the im- 
portant developments that have followed from Bohr’s theory by the 
work of Sommerfeld, Epstein, and others. The generalized theory 
has proved very fruitful in accounting in a formal way for many of 
the finer details of spectra, notably the doubling of the lines in the 
hydrogen spectrum and the explanation of the complex details of 
the Stark and Zeeman effects. In these theories of Bohr and his 
followers it is assumed that the electrons are in periodic orbital mo- 
tion round the nucleus and that radiation only arises when the orbit 
of the electron is disturbed in a certain way. Recently Langmuir, 
from a consideration of the general physical and chemical properties 
of the elements, has devised types of atom in which the electrons 
are more or less fixed in position relatively to the nucleus like 
the atoms of matter in a crystal. It appears necessary, in Lang- 
muir’s theory, to suppose that electrons, in addition to their elec- 
trical charges, are endowed with the properties of a magnetic 
doublet, so that at a certain distance the forces of attraction and 
repulsion between two electrons counterbalance one another. 

The whole question of the possible arrangements and motion of the 
external electrons in an atom or molecule still remains a matter of 
much doubt and speculation. While there are strong indications that 
the conception of the nucleus atom is in the main correct, we are 
still very uncertain of the laws controlling the position of the ex- 
ternal electrons on which the ordinary physical and chemical prop- 
erties depend. The study of the light spectra and also of the X-ray 
spectra already promise to throw new light on this very difficult 
but fundamental problem, 


RADIUM AND THE ELECTRON 


RUTHERFORD. 208 


From the above hurried survey of the progress of atomic physics 
it will be seen that the investigations of the past twenty-five years 
have dealt mainly with three great outstanding problems, viz, the 
nature of electricity, the structure of the atom, and the nature of 
radiation. While great additions have been made to our knowledge 
of these questions leading to a much wider outlook, we can not but 
recognize that much still remains to be done before we are certain 
that we are building on a firm foundation for the future. Notwith- 
standing the prolonged halt during the war, the scientific outlook is 
one of good augury for the immediate future, and there is every 
prospect that the vigorous attack on these outstanding problems will 
be continued. 


ite ih ‘ griagy tt Pind} ese 
ion ai oe sae " | Bie oe 


et i Mesias 
“Ue ab peers pee CIEE: ii ? . 
" iw cea to ailiantibe mesa vid wale 


4 
Ba She bea 


“da3adS Ting Lv ONISsSvVd 


“‘BUINNN—'6161 odey uxuosyyjws 


THE “HD-4."? 


A 70-MILER WITH REMARKABLE POSSIBILITIES DEVELOPED AT DR. GRAHAM 
BELL’S LABORATORIES ON THE BRAS D’OR LAKES. 


By WILLIAM WASHBURN NUTTING. 


[With 9 plates. ] 


One of the most interesting of the many strange things that have 
come from Dr. Graham Bell’s laboratories is a weird-looking glider 
that recently has been tearing about the peaceful Bras d’Or Lakes at 
the rate of 70 miles an hour. 

The HD is not a hydroplane in the usual sense of the term. It is 
the successful development of the idea, by no means new, of lifting 
the hull clear of the water by a system of submerged planes not a 
part of the hull itself. In other words, it uses the denser medium to 
obtain the lift and takes advantage of the low resistance to pro- 
pulsion offered by the air. An ordinary hydroplane, of course, 
utilizes the lifting principle and dodges much of the resistance of 
the water, but it is still comparatively inefficient in that it uses only 
the lower and by far the less important surface of the plane. 

A number of years ago Cooper-Hewett experimented with the idea 
of superposed planes and Forlanini attained some success with this 
principle in Italy. It is an alluring idea as the patent office records 
will show. But the HD-4, although she is only in the stage of de- 
velopment, of the aeroplane of 10 years ago, is much more than a 
successful application of principle of lifting the hull clear of the 
water. You will notice from the detail pictures that the steel planes 
are arranged in sets like the rungs of a ladder and graduated from 
large ones at the top'to small ones at the bottom. The faster the 
eraft travels the more of the planes rise out of the water until only 
sufficient surface to carry the load remains submerged. 

This automatic reefing of the supporting surface is one of the 
important features of the 7D-4 and one which, I believe, never has 
been attempted in an air craft, in which there is but one economical 
condition of speed and loading, a disadvantage particularly notice- 
able when taking off and landing. 


1 Reprinted by permission from Motor Boat, Vol. XVI, No. 20, Oct. 25, 1919. 
205 


206 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


Now look at the planes again. You will notice that they are not 
set horizontally but have a slight lateral angle, or dihedral angle, 
as it is called in the parlance of the aeroplane. It was found in the 
early experiments that when the planes or hydrofoils were arranged 
parallel to the surface of the water, a noticeable irregularity occurred 
when changing speed or when traveling in choppy water, due to the 
effect of the entire plane entering or leaving the water at once. On 
the present machine the lower end of one plane is about on a level 
with the upper end of the plane below it and for this reason the 
reefing process becomes smooth and continuous. Furthermore, it was 
found that the dihedral angle of the hydrofoils greatly increased 
the stability of the machine. 

The hydrofoils are arranged in three sets to give three point sup- 
port like that of an ice boat, which obviates the twisting effect always 
present in a structure supported at four points. The fourth set 
shown at the bow, or “ preventer,” as it is called, is merely to keep 
the bow from diving and to help lift the machine when getting under 
way. At full speed it is entirely clear of the water. 

When looking at the planes for the first time, your impression is 
that they are ridiculously small to support such a large hull. But 
remember that the area of the supporting surface is in inverse pro- 
portion to the density of the medium in which it acts. The specific 
gravity of salt water is nearly 800 times that of air, which means 
that the area of the submerged hydrofoils need be but 34, of the wing 
area of an aeroplane. It means also that the structural difficulties are 
insignificant compared to those encountered in aeroplane design, 
where the designer’s troubles increase as the cube of the dimensions 
of his machine. 

We said before that a surface hydroplane was inefficient in that it 
used only the lower and less important surface of the plane to obtain 
the lift. Few people seem to realize that it is the upper and not the 
lower face of the plane, say of an aeroplane, that does most of the 
work. The results made public recently by the British Advisory 
Committee on Aeronautics show that never, even with simple flat 
planes, does the air impinging on the lower surface exert more than a 
quarter of the total lift. It is the camber of the upper surface, over 
which a partial vacuum is created, that is the important factor. What 
is true of one medium is more or less true of another and, therefore, 
it would seem that a boat depending solely on the lifting effect of the 
water impinging on the sloping bottom is not the ultimate solution 
to the problem of obtaining speed on the water. 

The steel planes of the HD-4 are cambered according to the re- 
sults of countless experiments, in order to take advantage of the 
lifting possibilities of both surfaces. The ratio of “lft” over 


"AVG MOAGGVG NO YNOH NV SATII ALNSARS 


"6 SALV1d *BUININN—6 161 J4oday uBiUosY IWS 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Nutting. PLATE 3. 


THREE-QUARTER STERN VIEW OF HD-4 AT LABORATORY WHARF. 


THE POWER PLANT ON THE HD-4. 


THE ‘‘ Hp-4’’—NUTTING: 207 


“ drift,” that is to say, the ratio of the useful vertical component to the 
head resistance or horizontal component, is 8, whereas the best results 
thus far obtained with the surface hydroplane type, 1 believe, is 
about 6. In aeroplane work it is higher, but we are not claiming 
perfection for the HD-+ at this early stage of its development. 

The most efficient angle of incidence of the planes was a problem 
that was decided only after a long series of experiments. ‘The highest 
ratio of lift over drift was obtained with the chord of the planes 
inclined at an angle of 14°, which is used on the two forward sets. 
For the tail set it was found that the best results were obtained with 
the chord or flat under surface of the plane absolutely horizontal, 
which proves the contention that the under surface is comparatively 
unimportant. 

At present the hydrofoil surfaces of the HD-4 are supporting 
approximately 2,000 pounds to the square foot at 60 miles an hour, 
which is 200 times the load carried per square foot of wing area in 
aeroplane practice. What the limit is we do not know, as the subject 
is absolutely unexplored beyond this point. The theoretical limit to 
the lifting effect of the upper plane would be at the point where an 
absolute vacuum was created above it. Just below the surface of the 
water this would be slightly above 2,000 pounds per square toot, but 
the effect of another atmosphere could be obtained by submerging the 
planes to a depth of 32 feet which would be impractical. 

It takes a thrust of about 2,000 pounds and a speed of about 20 miles 
an hour to get the hull clear of the water, beyond which point the 
thrust required drops to about 1,500 pounds and rises very slowly, 
due principally to the resistance of the air, the resistance of the water 
dropping from 1,900 pounds at 15 miles an hour to 1,300 pounds at 
34 miles an hour and remaining practically constant above this point, 
due to the reefing of the supporting surfaces. 

Since this article was written the writer has received from Mr. 
Baldwin the following interesting data: 

When the main set of hydrofoils is set at an angle of 14° and the rudder set at 
0° the machine rises at about 20 miles per hour on roughly 40 square feet of 
surface, which equals about 275 pounds per square foot. At 40 miles per hour 
about 10 square feet of surface are immersed, which equals 1,100 pounds per 
square foot, and at 60 miles per hour the entire machine is carried upon about 
4 square feet of surface, or 2,470 pounds per square foot of hydrofoil im- 
mersed. 

Now that we have explained the theory, let us look over the ma- 
chine itself. The hull of the craft is a torpedo-shaped affair 60 feet 
in length, with two outrigger hulls or pontoons each 16 feet in length 
connected to the main hull by a deck. The deck supports the two 
Liberty motors, which are mounted on either side just abaft the cock- 
pit. It is designed in the form of an aerofoil, with flat under surface 


208 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


and cambered top and presenting a useful lifting area of 203 square 
feet. 

The hull is 5 feet 9 inches in diameter and is quite heavily built. 
A system of fore-and-aft stringers are secured to several bulkheads 
and the frame is a continuous spiral wrapped around these. ‘The 
half-inch planking is applied longitudinally and, to resist bending 
and torsional stresses, a number of longitudinal and diagonal steel 
wires are run over the frame. The hull is covered with canvas laid 
spirally in the opposite direction to the framing. Except for the 
cockpit and a fuel tank in the stern. the hull is unused and would 
accommodate a score of people. 

The forward hydrofoil sets, upon which the machine largely de- 
pends for support when under way, are hung on a steel tube 52 inches 
in diameter, which passes through the hull 15 feet from the bow. 
The tail set acts also as a rudder, the struts offering sufficient lateral 
surface for this purpose. It is mounted on a column 6 feet from the 
stern and is operated by tiller lines running to the steering wheel 
in the cockpit. 

The motors are of the low-compression Liberty type, developing 
350 horsepower and weighing 800 pounds each. They are mounted on 
a special form of wooden trussed bed, the horizontal members of 
which are finished in the form of aerofoils, adding a useful lifting 
surface of 83 feet. The function of this surface and that of the deck 
is to provide an air-cushioning effect which acts as a sort of shock ab- 
sorber when the machine is traveling in choppy water. 

The motors are provided with compressed-air starters and all 
controls are led to the cockpit. The fuel is forced from the tank in 
the hull to the level of the carbureters by air pressure maintained by 
a hand pump. 

The center of gravity of the machine is 25 feet from the bow, but 
when she is running at full speed the line of thrust of the air propel- 
lers is 10 feet above the base of support, which brings the virtual 
center of gravity about 23 feet from the bow. 

Now step into the cockpit and we will take a ride, and if you want 
to hear anything for the rest of the day stuff some cotton into your 
ears before the motors are started, for they are not mufiled. - Over 
goes the starboard motor with the crackle of a machine gun and those 
on the dock scurry from the cyclone caused by the whirring propel- 
ler. The mooring lines are cast off and we slip out into the lake at 
about 10 knots. 

Baldwin gives the air to the port motor and the exhaust becomes 
a continuous roar. At 15 knots you feel the machine rising bodily 
out of the water, and once up and clear of the drag, she drives ahead 
with an acceleration that makes you grip your seat to keep from be- 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Nutting. PLATE 4. 


THE HD-4 ENGINE MOoUNTINGS: TWo LIBERTY LOW-COMPRESSION Motors, 
350 HORSEPOWER EACH. 


THREE-QUARTER Bow VIEW OF THE HD-4 FROM ABOVE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Nutting. 


PLATE 5. 


Bow VIEW OF THE HD-4 ON HER CRADLE, SHOWING STARBOARD AND PoRT 
HYDROFOILS. 


REAR VIEW OF THE HD-4 IN HER SHED, SHOWING STERN HYDROFOILS. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Nutting. PLATE 6. 


Dr. BELL AT THE LABORATORY WHARF, WATCHING THE PERFORMANCES OF 
THE HD-4 ON BADDECK BAY. 


THE HD-4 FLOATING AT REST ON BADDECK BAY. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Nutting. PLATE 7. 


THE HD-4 ON HER HAULING-UP CRADLE, SHOWING MAIN HYDROFOILS FROM 
THE SIDE. 


Bow VIEW OF THE HD-4, SHOWING DECK AND CocKPIT ARRANGEMENTS. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Nutting. PLATE 8. 


COCKPIT OF THE HD-4: DR. BELL, MR. BALDWIN AT THE WHEEL, AND THE 
CREW. 


SHOWING How FAR OUT OF THE WATER THE HD-4 RIDES WHEN AT FULL 
SPEED. 


ei ial tip el a Ca 


"dasdS HDIH LV SNINYNL b-GQH SHL 


“SUINMN—616L ‘OdeY UR|UOsU}WS 


"6 ALV1d 


THE ‘‘ HD—-4’’—NUTTING. 209 


ing left behind. The wind on your face is like the pressure of a 
giant hand and an occasional dash of fine spray stings like birdshot. 

Baddeck, a mile away, comes at you with the speed of a railway 
train and you brace yourself for the turn as Baldwin drives her 
through the narrow passage inside the island. You feel that she is 
going to skid as he starts to make the turn at full speed, but she 
does not. Just as the struts of the rudder set are sufficient to steer her, 
so are those of the main planes sufficient to keep her from side slip- 
ping. Even more startling is the fact that she doesn’t seem to heel a 
degree as she makes the turn. It is unbelievable—it defies the laws of 
physics, but it is true. 

Then you notice that you are traveling over waves a foot and a 
half in height—waves that would take the bottom out of an ordinary 
hydroplane traveling at such a speed. There is no pounding or 
jolting of the kind with which everyone who has ridden in a racing 
hydroplane is familiar. A slight undulation like that you feel in a 
Pullman car is the only sensation. 

Another noticeable thing is that when hitting a wave there is no 
retarding of the machine as would be the case with a surface plane, 
and in this connection it might be interesting to note the effect on the 
hydrofoil supports at top speed. It will be seen from plate 7, figure 
1, that the forward hydrofoil sets are hung from a steel tube 
which passes through the body of the machine and that the axis of 
the struts is several inches forward of the center of this pipe. This 
seemingly insignificant length of lever arm through which the “ lift ” 
is applied is sufficient to neutralize the “ drift” on the hydrofoils 
3 feet or so below the point of support. At full speed, instead of a 
tremendous backward pull on these struts as would be expected, the 
tendency is actually forward, and the supporting member running 
from the strut to the under side of the deck, instead of being in 
tension as would be expected, is actually in compression. 

Then Baldwin gives you the wheel and timidly you start to try 
it out. You feel that something must surely let go if you give her 
any helm. But nothing does and you find that she steers with the 
ease of an automobile. 

As you get accustomed to the speed your confidence grows and soon 
you find yourself out of the cockpit lying over the edge of the deck 
on your stomach to see for yourself what is going on below. The 
“ preventer ” at the bow is entirely clear of the water except for the 
tip of an occasional wave and all of the main sets are out except for 
the two lower ones on either side. Each square foot of submerged 
steel is carrying over 2,000 pounds. 

Baldwin designed the HD-4 to demonstrate the possibilities of the 
type for carrying loads at extreme speed, efficiently, and with com- 


210 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN IN STITUTION, 1919. 


parative safety. When you come in from your first ride you are 
convinced. If you have ever flown, you know that flying is a dull 
business, compared to skimming over the surface of the water at 60 
knots, and for this reason there undoubtedly will be a future for the 
type for sport as well as for the more serious things at which Dr. 
Bell and Mr. Baldwin have been aiming. 


NATURAL RESOURCES IN THEIR RELATION TO MILI- 
TARY SUPPLIES. 


By ArtHur D. LITTLE. 


In the aboriginal days, when the American Navy consisted of 
birch-bark canoes manned by Indians, the relation of the canoe to 
the birch tree was obvious. Even in that far-off and simple time, 
however, the problem of securing suitable material for the arrow- 
head with which the Indian tipped his shaft was by no means simple, 
and its solution frequently involved long journeys and the use of 
diverse materials. The Indians of what is now New England evi- 
dently used the black flint from Mount Kineo, but Middle West In- 
dians used obsidian, much of which probably came from the Yellow- 
stone district. Indians along the lower Colorado River made myri- 
ads of arrowheads from flint cobblestones, very like those which 
practically cover the surface of the ground between Kingman and 
the Grand Canyon. Florida Indians used colored silica, most of 
which is pseudomorph after oyster shells and coral, and in some 
parts of the West there may be found arrowheads of petrified wood. 
The southeastern part of the country abounds in heads made from 
white quartz or quartzite. 

In a word, the Indian on the warpath, like all other belligerents 
before or since, found his warlike activities conditioned and deter- 
mined by the natural resources of his environment and his own 
technical ability to make use of them. He fought with flint arrow- 
heads over beds of coal and iron ore because he knew nothing of 
smelting iron, and so, for his military purposes, the continental 
reserves of coal and iron ore were nonexistent. 

In the same measure that our present civilization exceeds in com- 
plexity the primitive life of the savage do the requirements of 
modern warfare bring new demands which strain all the resources 
of that civilization, and may even, as we have witnessed, strain them 
beyond the breaking point. In the last analysis the capacity ofa 
nation to wage war is determined by the natural resources available 
to that nation and the technical ability and productive agencies 
which it can utilize in their conversion into military supplies. 

We all recognize the fundamental importance in this connection of 
such basic natural resources as coal and limestone and iron ore, but 

211 


212 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


we may overlook the fact that the addition of a small percentage of 
tungsten to the steel of cutting tools may multiply by four the 
output of a mechanic making machine-gun parts. It was not imme- 
diately obvious that the success of a gas-mask program and all the 
consequences of a failure of that program might hinge on the supply 
of coconut shells from which to make absorbent charcoal. Only 
recently has the atmosphere become our most reliable source of 
nitrates. Seaweed might be regarded as a negligible resource from 
the military standpoint, but the war called into being at San Diego 
a vast plant producing from Pacific kelps iodine, potash, and a whole 
series of organic solvents required in the powder manufacture. The 
mitsumata plant, from the bark of which the Japanese make their 
paper, is less belligerent than a humming bird, but it contributed 
the 3,000,000 paper parachutes with which our star shells were pro- 
vided. Nearly 500,000 Chinese Nuchwang dogs gave up their hides 
and fur to keep our aviators warm, and millions of Australian 
rabbits “went west” because their furry coats were needed to make 
the hats our soldiers wore. We do not go to a gun store for bird 
seed, but bird seed is none the less a military supply. The Signal 
Corps trained 15,000 carrier pigeons for service in France, and tons 
of Argentine corn, pop corn, millet, and Canada peas were shipped 
to feed them. ficidbtitary it may Be said that the pigeons delivered 
over 95 per cent of all the messages intrusted to them. 

To a layman like myself it hein to be apparent that any consid- 
eration of the relation of raw materials to military supplies involves 
some extension of commonly accepted notions as to what military 
supphes really are. 

At the beginning of 1919 the catalogue of Army supplies com- 
prised 120,000 separate items. On the day the armistice was signed 
nearly 8,000 manufacturing plants in the country were working on 
ordnance contracts, and the estimated total cost of ordnance alone 
for the equipment of the first 5,000,000 American soldiers was be- 
tween $12,000,000,000 and $13,000,000,000, and involved expenditure 
at a rate which would pay for a Panama Canal every 30 days. The 
Wool Administrator did a business’ of $2,500,000 a day, and the 
total purchases of wool reached $504,000,000. The war demand 
absorbed substantially all the wool in sight, leaving practically 
nothing for civilians, and this shortage was felt with varying degrees 
of acuteness by all the belligerents. In fact, the only country in the 
world that had an excess of wool in November, 1918, was Australia, 
which was surfeited with an accumulation of a billion’ pounds, to 
export which no shipping was available. Twenty-two million blan- 
kets were provided to keep our soldiers warm, and 100,000,000 yards 
of Melton cloth for overcoats and uniforms. In the Chicago district 


ee ee eel 


~ NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 213 


alone hundreds of shirt factories were making flannel shirts on 
Government contracts, and throughout the country some 4,000 in- 
spectors were assigned to garment factories. 

Of cotton textiles we procured in all over 800,000,000 square yards. 
The figure is impressive as it stands. It becomes preposterous when 
a brief calculation shows that if laid out in a 1-yard width 55 globes 
the size of the earth might be placed upon it. Among the items which 
make up the total were 100,000,000 yards of denim, 120,000,000 yards 
of webbing, 140,000,000 yards of gauze, and nearly 300,000,000 yards 
of cotton duck. An especial interest attaches to cotton webbing be- 
cause of its very general substitution for leather in countless details 
of equipment, as cartridge belts, suspenders, gun slings, and horse 
bridles. So great was the demand that ultimately 150 plants were 
engaged in webbing production, and there was a very serious shortage 
throughout the war of machine knitting needles for webbing, hosiery, 
and gloves, these needles having formerly been made in Germany. 
As an example of the relation of design to emergency production it 
may be pointed out that there were not enough machines in the 
United States to knit one-tenth of the seamless woolen gloves re- 
quired, in consequence of which the gloves had ultimately to be rede- 
signed and made from knit fabric, cut to pattern and sewed. These 
did not wear well, and it became necessary to supplement them with 
another glove of canton flannel with a leather palm to be worn outside 
the woolen glove. 

In the variety and multiplicity of its applications to military 
requirements cotton stands forth as a basic raw material comparable 
at least in its importance to steel. It was ubiquitous and protean. 
It flowed in an unceasing stream through thousands of factories and 
plants to reappear in camp and field and hospital as underwear, 
clothing, tents, bed rolls, and sheeting; barrack bags, coal bags, and 
mail bags; cargo and wagon covers; mask fabrics, tire and hose 
fabrics. It functioned high above the field of battle as balloon fabric 
and the cloth for airplane wings. It constituted the base of all our 
smokeless powder and of the dope for airplane wings. It supplied 
both the base and the coating material for the artificial leather 
essential to automobile construction. To the surgeon and the 
wounded man it was indispensable as gauze, absorbent cotton, and 
collodion, and for them it provided in one year 574,000,000 yards of 
bandages. Supplemented with rubber and paraffin, it insulated the 
40,000 miles of outpost wire required to satisfy the monthly needs of 
the Signal Corps. The millions of steel helmets were lined and 
meshed with cotton twine. In the form of celluloid film cotton bore 
the countless pictures which carried information of vital importance 
and registered the story of the war. 

12573°—21——15 


214 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The millions of pounds of smokeless powder produced each day 
in Government and private plants were not made from staple cotton, 
but from the shorter cotton linters, together with the very short 
fibers adhering to the cotton hull, and our production of propellants 
thus made no demands upon the store of cotton suitable for textile 
purposes. ? 

Before leaving the textile fibers we may, to hold our subject. to- 
gether, mention that 216,000,000 buttons were required in one year 
for Army shirts alone. Their raw material was ivory nuts, and 
the waste was converted into charcoal for the gas-absorbing can- 
isters of the gas masks. Only a very dense and hard charcoal func- 
tioned adequately, and for this we at first depended upon coconut 
shells. Our demands quickly rose, however, to about five times 
the entire coconut production of the tropical Americas. Cohune nuts 
were next utilized, and from them the exigencies of gas defense spread 
the demand to peach stones, ivory nuts, olive and cherry pits, and 
even to Brazil “ where the nuts come from.” At one time there were 
on the rails 100 carloads of peach stones and similar materials moy- 
ing to the carbon plants. We made in all 54 million gas masks, and 
the failure in supply of such a thing as coconut shells might have lost 
the war. . 

The American soldier was blessed with a good appetite and ate 


nearly three-quarters of a ton of food a year. He consumed during . 


the war period over 1,000,000,000 pounds of flour and 800,000,000 
pounds of beef, and we must not forget that behind the flour mills 
stood vast wheat fields or that only wide cattle ranges could daily 
fill the stockyards. We may omit the other imposing items of the 
gigantic meal, for which the total bill was over $700,000,000, but it 
should be noted that in it were included the widely varied contents 
of tin cans to the number of more than a billion. The tin can in its 
humble way marks the range of civilization, and he who has gone 
beyond the last tin can is an explorer of the unmarked wilderness. 
Tt defines equally the range of armies and the penetrating influence 
of the Standard Oil Co. In the same sense that Napoleon’s armies 
traveled on their stomach modern armies mark their progress by the 
tin cans they leave behind. It is significant, therefore, that the United 
States normally consumes about 70 per cent of the world’s produc- 
tion of tin, to which it contributes practically nothing, and half of 
this production goes into tin plate. As Germany neither produced 
nor could secure tin she was forced to substitute cardboard containers 
or to resort to dried foods. 

One bakery had a capacity of 500,000 pounds of bread a day, and 
contracts were made for 15,000 complete rolling kitchens, including 
of course cooking and camp utensils, with which may be mentioned 
the inconspicuous item of 10,346,000 spoons. Even less pretentious 


: 
| 
; 


Ft Fl ee ee ee 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 215 


as a military supply, but of substantial importance is the garbage, 
from which the British extracted glycerine at a saving of $1,000 a 
ton. 

To furnish drinking water on the march provision was made for 
22,000 drinking water carts, in many of which the water was carried 
in canvas bags, while to remove delinquent members of the soldier’s 
dental equipment the horrors of war were increased by the activities 
of more than 47,000 teeth-extracting forceps. The other side of the 
picture may be indicated by the solace afforded by shipments of a 
monthly average of 20,000,000 cigars, 425,000,000 cigarettes, and a 
ration of candy which involved 34 million pounds in a single month. 
Even chewing gum found its place as a military supply of recognized 
and great value on the march as a substitute for water. 

The building program forced upon us by the war involved thou- 
sands of structures to meet the most diverse requirements and a 
far greater expenditure than that of all the construction operations 
in 150 of our largest American cities in any single year. Sixteen 
complete cities, each ready for 40,000 inhabitants, and 16 tent camps 
were completed in less time than it takes to build an ordinary subur- 
ban dwelling house. In little more than a year new housing had 
been provided for a population equal to that of Philadelphia. 
Forty bed hospital wings were erected, painted, equipped, and 
plumbed in 10 hours. At Nashville, Tenn., and at Nitro, near 
Charleston, W. Va., vast industrial plants, designed in the one case 
for the production of 1,000,000 pounds and in the other for an output 
of 625,000 pounds of smokeless powder per day were built, equipped, 
and put in operation with extraordinary speed. 

Houses went up to the value of $2,000,000 a day. All this means 
a flow of construction material without parallel in the history of 
the world. Lumber and wall board, window glass and roofing, 
nails by the billion, brick and cement and structural steel—all to a 
total of millions of tons—took their place in the finished structures. 
All the factories in the United States could not meet the demands 
for metal piping. But the cantonments were merely an incident 
in the building program, which included also enormous powder 
plants, huge terminal docks, warehouses and storage depots cover- 
ing almost 900 acres, hundreds of miles of railroads, proving grounds, 
arsenals, chemical plants, and more than a thousand miles of road. 

The supplies required for the health, comfort, and diversion of 
our troops were of the most miscellaneous character, ranging from 
raincoats, slickers, and 4,000,000 pairs of rubber boots to furs for 
the Siberian expedition. They included 200,000 sheets of band music 
and 143,000 musical instruments. The requisition for 500,000 pillows 
disclosed a shortage in feathers, and after the ducks in the United 


216 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


States had made their contribution it was not even possible to secure 
an adequate supply from China. Jam brought variety to the soldier’s 
ration, but the 26,000,000 pounds consumed carries a suggestion of 
monotony. Fifty-nine factories in the United States operated at 
emergency speed to supply the 94 million brushes needed, and China, 
India, Russia, and Siberia were drawn upon for bristles. The 
45,000,000 safety razor blades constituted a minor, but essential item 
of supply and recall the story of the negro trooper, who, finding a 
safety razor in the comfort bag which he received from some well- 
intentioned organization, was heard to remark, “I wonder what 
damn pacifist put that in.” 

Hospitals with 280,000 beds were made ready and available in 
France, and the amount actually spent for medical supplies was over 
$370,000,000. A single item covered. 300,000,000 tubes of iodine- 
potassium. In one month there were shipped 65 tons of surgical in- 
struments to France, and during the war ever 1,000,000 clinical ther- 
mometers were supplied. It is interesting to compare the estimated 
medical requirements of an army on a peace and war footing, a peace 
quota of 500,000 men being adequately suppled with an expenditure 
of about $9,000,000, whereas on the war basis 5,000,000 men necessi- 
tated. an annual expenditure of nearly $306,000,000. . In other words, 
the expenditure per man is about three and. one-half times as great 
on the war basis as during a period of peace. 

The problem of transportation of military supplies is obviously as 
important as that of their procurement. It is a matter of common 
knowledge that the railroad facilities of the country broke down 
under the strain imposed upon them and have, in fact, not yet re- 
covered therefrom. . However this may be, transportation from the 
terminals to the front must in nearly every case depend ultimately 
upon motor trucks, and of these the army had in the latter part of 
1918, 85,000, Had the war lasted until July 1, 1919, there would have 
been in commission 185,000 trucks, 30,000 motor ambulances, 40,000 
passenger cars, and 70,000 motor cycles. To them gasoline, of 
course, stood in the relation of powder to the gun and was latterly 
consumed at the rate of about 200,000 barrels a month, including 
that assigned to Army planes. For these there was provided a spe- 
cial redistilled gasoline, known as “257° Fighting Naphtha,” which, 
to avoid waste and misuse, was dyed red. 

However one may feel about the horse, the mule is generally re- 
garded as raw material. In two years the Army purchases of horses 
were over 800,000, and more than half as many mules were brought 
into service. For these fodder, feed, and veterinary supplies were 
obviously required in great amounts, and the former were, of course, 
derived directly from the soil. 


Dee PO OT ye ee 


St. 


an ee ee 


P. 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 217 


The chief materials for smokeless powder are cotton linters, sul- 
phuric and nitric acids, and various organic solvents, as, for example, 
acetone in the case of cordite. The shortage of cotton, which early de- 
veloped in Germany, forced that country to substitute for cotton 
chemically-prepared wood fiber. A wider range of raw materials 
is available for the production of high explosives, in which are 
utilized toluol, phenol, and aniline among organic compounds and 
sodium nitrate, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, and ammonia liquor among 
the inorganic substances most directly concerned. Nothing in the 
record of American industry is more striking and creditable than 
the enormous expansion of our output of explosives to meet the exi- 
gency of the war. In 19 months our production of propellants was 
632,504,000 pounds, an amount practically equal to the combined 
production of the British and the French. During the same period 
we made over 375,000,000 pounds of high ee 

The sulphuric ae concerned in such production is mane from 
pyrites or from sulphur. The greatest producer in the world—at 
Ducktown, Tenn.—utilizes, by subsequent oxidation, the sulphurous 
acid in its smelter fume. Many domestic plants depended upon 
pyrites from the Rio Tinto district in Spain, and this supply was 
quickly shut off by the war. We have, however, in Louisiana and 
Texas the greatest known deposits of sulphur in the world, and these 
were largely drawn upon. The danger of a highly localized supply 
was emphasized when early in 1918 a destructive storm crippled 
the Louisiana producers, but fortunately the damage was repaired 
before the acid makers were affected. 

Coal is practically the only source of toluol, from which it is com- 
monly derived through the agency of by-product coke ovens. In 
1914 the total toluol capacity of such ovens in this country was only 
about 700,000 pounds a month, and the necessity for a greatly in- 
creased supply for conversion into trinitrotoluol or T. N. T. pre- 
sented one of our greatest and most pressing problems in raw mate- 
rials. So well was it met, however, that by April, 1917, our produc- 
tion had risen to 6,000, 000 pounds a month, and this Scie output 
was doubled by Roy uber 1918. Much of cine increased supply was 
due to the expedient of stripping city gas by washing out the toluol, 
and additional supplies were secured by the development of methods 
of cracking petroleum oils. 

Trinitrotoluol was early recognized as perhaps the most impor- 
tant of the high explosives, and the courage and initiative of our 
private manufacturers brought our production up to 16,000,000 
pounds a month. Meantime two great Government plants were 
built: one at Racine, Wis., with a capacity of 4,000,000 pounds a 
month, and the other at Giant, Calif., designed for 2,000,000 pounds 


218 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


a month. These did not, however, become actual factors in produc- 
tion. In addition to its widespread use in high-explosive shells 
T. N. T. figured both spectacularly and effectively in airplane bombs, 
some of which carried 500 pounds. 

Of phenol—also a product of the distillation of coal—the base of 
trinitrophenol or 'picric acid, our monthly production was raised 
from 670,000 pounds upon our entry into the war to 13,000,000 pounds 
a month 19 months later, and of this a considerable proportion was 
produced synthetically from benzol. 

Picric acid, which is made from phenol by treatment with nitric 
and sulphuric acids, constitutes the chief explosive used by the 
French, who found it necessary to call upon us for vast amounts, and 
in response to this demand our production rose in 12 months from 
600,000 pounds a month to 11,300,000 pounds, an increase of 2,000 
per cent. Our own Government authorized the construction of three 
picric acid plants, each of a monthly capacity of 144 million pounds. 
Only one, however, went into production before the signing of the 
armistice. 

The raw-material relation of ammonium picrate is obvious, as is 
that of tetranitroaniline, which we produced in quantity for Russia 
for the loading of boosters and fuses. Tetryl or tetranitrodimethyl- 
aniline was only used as a loading charge for boosters, but was, 
however, being turned out at the rate of 160,000 pounds a month when 
the armistice was signed. 

All this vast production of explosives was, of course, conditioned 
upon the maintenance of an adequate supply of nitric acid, which 
essential had formerly been derived from Chile in the shape of sodium 
nitrate. A gigantic program for the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen 
in various combinations was thereupon conceived and pressed into 
execution. At Sheffield, Ala., a great plant for producing ammonia 
by a modification of the Haber process was just coming into produc- 
tion at the signing of the armistice. The cyanamid process was 
installed on a grand scale at Muscle Shoals, Ala., which was starting 
production at the same time. Elsewhere the Bucher process of mak- 
ing sodium cyanide was under development. On November 11, 1918, 
-the total producing capacity of the country for ammonium nitrate 
from all sources, including Muscle Shoals and Sheffield, was 20,000,000 
pounds a month. 

Among the most notable of the great constructive operations of 
the war must be mentioned the Old Hickory plant for smokeless 
powder at Nashville, Tenn., the somewhat smaller but still vast plant 
at Nitro, and the enormous expansion of private plants, as that of the 
du Ponts at Hopewell, Va. The Old Hickory plant was self-con- 
tained and comprised nine complete powder lines, each of a capacity 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 919 


of 100,000 pounds a day. It covered 5,000 acres, involved the con- 
struction of a city of 20,000 people, and cost in all some $90,000,000. 
There the War Department found itself engaged in building 
churches. The Nitro plant had a daily capacity of 625,000 pounds. 

The United States was the only combatant to use nitro starch, 
which was employed in the loading of hand and rifle grenades and 
trench mortar shells. Reference should also be made to the utiliza- 
tion of mercury in the explosive program through its employment 
as mercury fulminate in detonators and primer charges. 

In addition to the immense amounts of steel required by the Navy 
for ships, armor, and guns of all sizes, the Army ordnance included 
various types as follows: Two-man 37-millimeter cannon, mobile field 
guns of 75-millimeter caliber, 155-millimeter howitzers, 4.7, 5, 6, 8, 
and 10-inch field guns, and 12 and 14-inch rifles on railway mounts. 
All these were required in great numbers—thousands of the smaller 
arms and hundreds and scores of the larger. Preeminent as we are 
in the steel industries, all the facilities of the country were inadequate 
to realize the gun-building program. It was, therefore, to be supple- 
mented by a vast ordnance plant, greater than the Krupps, on Neville 
Island in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh. This was designed to com- 
plete each month 15 great 14-inch guns and simultaneously to carry 
forward toward completion hundreds of others, while turning out at 
the same time 40,000 projectiles monthly. The plant was equipped to 
build 16 and even 18 inch guns, the latter weighing 510,000 pounds 
each. Work on this gigantic construction project was suspended at 
the signing of the armistice and was abandoned soon thereafter. 

The amount of steel required for artillery is well indicated by our 
replacement agreement with France, under which we supplied for 
artillery furnished 6 tons of steel for each 75-millimeter gun, 40 tons 
for each 155-millimeter howitzer, and 60 tons for each 155-millimeter 
gun. There must also be considered the immense amount of ma- 
terial tied up in machine tools and special steels required for the 
fabrication of guns, rifles, and projectiles. In fact, the machine tool 
supply was never adequate, and the most drastic measures were justi- 
fied in its requisition. 

It is interesting to note that it takes 10 months to build a 14-inch 
gun, the life of which at the normal rate of firing is 150 shots before 
relining. Since each shot is executed in one-fiftieth to one-thirtieth 
of a second, the actual life of the gun in the actual performance of 
its function is only 3 seconds long. For instantly destroying the 
effectiveness of captured cannon we used thermite grenades for 
fusing their firing mechanism. 

The steel for gun manufacture must obviously be of the highest 
quality and finest grade for its intended purpose and is often an alloy 


220 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


steel, like nickel steel. It is smelted in open-hearth furnaces, the 
charge for which consists of pig iron and selected scrap. Over 
21,000 workmen were employed in big-gun construction and as many 
more in the fabrication of gun carriages and fire-control instruments. 
Each carriage, moreover, in the case of mobile guns, required a shield 
of armor plate. In 1918 we produced over 8,400 cannon forgings. 
As regards the effective weight of the guns themselves, it is significant 
that the 800-pound gun of nickel steel of 1918 fires as heavy a projec- 
tile as the 1,650-pound bronze gun of the Napoleonic wars. 

Each gun required an immense amount of heavy equipment, 
mostly, of course, of steel in the form of limbers, caissons, auto trucks 
and tractors, caterpillar mounts, and other devices. Each 155- 
millimeter howitzer involved some 200. items of miscellaneous equip- 
ment, as air and liquid pumps and tools. All this required the erec- 
tion of great base repair shops—in themselves larger than some pro- 
ducing arsenals. 

The extraordinary development of barrage fire by which the war 
was characterized was conditioned'on the use of thousands of deli- 
cate and accurate sighting instruments and involved the expenditure 
of ammunition in quantities hitherto unknown. The Union Army 
at Gettysburg fired 32,781 rounds.. The United States fired at St. 
Mihiel over 1,000,000 rounds and the British at the Somme 4,000,000 
rounds. In the Civil War Union artillerists fired 4 rounds per gun 
per day, whereas from January 1 to November 11, 1918, the average 
for American guns was 30, for French 34, and for British 35 rounds 
per day. 

As to shell production, we turned out prior to the armistice, and 
in the 75-millimeter size alone, about 44 million high-explosive 
shells, one-half million gas shells, and over 74 million shrapnel. 

The various sorts of grenades made, of course, wholly different 
demands upon raw materials for their construction. The defensive 
or fragmentation type was made of malleable iron; the offensive 
grenade had a paper shell, its purpose being to kill by the concussion 
of the charge; gas and phosphorus grenades were formed of sheet 
metal and the thermite shell of terne-plate. And there were also 
incendiary and rifle grenades. About 28,000,000 of all kinds were 
produced by November, 1918, but only a small proportion—less, 
indeed, than 4 per cent—were loaded. Contracts had been placed for 
68,000 000 of the defensive type alone. 

‘At the time of the armistice the standard equipment of a division 
called for 260 heavy machine guns and 768 light automatic rifles, 
and the total of automatic arms made on army orders alone in the 
United States and Canada was over a quarter of a million. About 
32,000 Lewis aircraft guns were completed. It was found neces- 


ae ee ee 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 291 


sary to provide over 280,000 rounds of ammunition per machine gun 
in the field during its first year of service. 

It will be remembered that the question of shoulder rifles occa- 
sioned much discussion and concern, but the United States neverthe- 
less built in 19 months over two and one-half million of these weapons 
and about 750,000 pistols and revolvers and turned out in the same 
time nearly 4,000,000,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, including 
that for machine guns. In view of these great figures it is interest- 
ing to consider them with respect to the materials concerned in the 
make-up of some of the units of this ammunition. 

The ordinary service cartridge consists of a brass cartridge case, 
a primer with a primer charge of sulphur, chlorate of potash, and 
antimony sulphide, a propelling charge of smokeless powder, which 
refers at once to cotton and the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, 
and finally, a bullet with a cupro-nickel jacket and a lead slug or 
core. The production, therefore, of this single small object involves 
our reserves of copper, zinc, nickel, lead, and antimony among the 
metals; the Louisiana or Texas sulphur deposits; potash, as to which 
We were experiencing a famine; water power to convert by electro- 
lysis potassium chloride to the chlorate; and finally, cotton linters, 
sulphuric and nitric acids, various organic solvents, and even the 
fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. Since there was a shortage in 
cupro-nickel, which is a hard alloy of the two metals, it might have 
become necessary to have jacketed the bullet with copper-coated 
steel. 

The armor-piercing bullet had a cupro-nickel jacket lined with a 
thin lead coat, and the core was of specially heat-treated alloy steel. 
Tracer bullets, of which 5,000,000 were produced, had a cupro- 
nickel shell with a lead core in the nose and a rear chamber charge 
of barium peroxide and magnesium, the latter being an electric 
furnace product. The shell of the incendiary bullet was the same, 
but it carried phosphorus in the nose, had a lead plug, and a special, 
low-melting solder. 

The trench mortar from the 3-inch Newton-Stokes to the 240- 
millimeter was an interesting and highly effective development of 
the war. The 3-inch mortars and the shells used therein were both 
made of steel tubing, and for the latter alone about. 2,700,000 feet 
of such tubing were made. Shells for the 6-inch mortars were of cast 
iron and made by stove manufacturers. 

The revival of the use of armor, which, of course, requires for its 
fabrication alloy steel of the highest quality, was no less significant 
_ and interesting. Good alloy steel 0.036 inch thick proved effective 
against pistol bullets, and French hospital records show that 70 to 
80 per cent of the wounded soldiers received were injured by mis- 


222 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


siles or shell fragments which armor like this would have stopped. 
The Germans made much use of body armor, and our own Govern- 
ment went to the great art galleries for specialists in armor in its 
effort to produce helmets affording the utmost measure of protection. 
Our highest ambition was to rival the product of the best armorers 
of the Middle Ages, over whom we had a great advantage in the 
superior qualities of modern special steels. Steel containing much 
manganese was found best adapted to use in helmets and was used 
also in the British helmet. Of 7,000,000 helmets ordered we received 
2,700,000. It is curious to note in passing that fine sawdust played 
an important part in their production, the helmets, after being first 
painted, receiving, while the paint was wet, a coat of sawdust from 
a blower, after which the dried and roughened surface received a sec- 
ond coat of paint. The purpose of this treatment was, of course, to 
break up and dissipate reflected light. 

Perhaps the most striking offensive development of the war was 
the employment of toxic gases and latterly of toxic smokes. These 
gases were of many sorts, but chlorine was the one first used by the 
Germans in their attack in the Ypres salient in April, 1915, and this 
was so disastrous in its effect that had it been followed up, the Ger- 
mans could undoubtedly have gone through to the coast with prac- 
tically no opposition. The Germans in their earlier attacks dis- 
charged the gas from great numbers of cylinders placed within the 
trenches, and the direction and velocity of the wind determined the 
possibility of a gas attack. Both the Germans and the Allies, there- 
fore, quickly resorted to the use of gas in shells, while the Allies de- 
veloped the extremely effective Livens projector, which, firing simul- 
taneously sometimes to the number of hundreds, discharged upon a 
localized area gas-filled drums about 24 inches long and 8 inches in 
diameter. Their effective range was about a mile. Much gas was also 
thrown in hand grenades. 

Field experience and the conditions imposed by quantity produc- 
tion soon narrowed the number of available gases to relatively few, 
and of these phosgene was one of the most toxic. Certain thermo- 
chemical considerations led to an ingenious modification of. the 
method of production, and phosgene was produced in great amounts 
by passing a mixture of oxygen and carbon dioxide over hot coke 
in gas producers and thereafter sending the carbon monoxide thus 
formed through catalyzers, together with chlorine. which, combining 
with the carbon monoxide, produced phosgene. 

The chief seat of poison-gas manufacture in this country, though 
its production was largely supplemented elsewhere, was Edgewood 
Arsenal, which, producing its chlorine by the electrolysis of a solu- 
tion of common salt, had a phosgene capacity of 20 tons a day. 


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NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 228 


Chloropicrin also played an important part in gas warfare and 
was produced at Edgewood to the amount of 2,320,000 pounds, the 
maximum amount actually produced in one day reaching 31 tons. 
It is made by treating calcium picrate with bleaching powder and 
steam and thus involves as ultimate raw materials limestone for 
making lime, benzol produced from coal in by-product coke ovens, 
and nitric and sulphuric acids for effecting the conversion of benzol to 
picric acid. Coal is again, of course, involved in the production of 
steam, and for the bleaching powder we have to turn once more to 
limestone for the lime and to chlorine resulting from the electrolysis 
of salt. 

Perhaps the most generally effective of all the substances used in 
gas warfare was dichloroethylsulphide, or mustard gas, produced by 
blowing gaseous ethylene into liquid sulphur monochloride. Ethy- 
lene is a product of the destructive distillation of coal in gas works, 
but in this case was made by passing alcohol over hot kaolin. Sul- 
phur is, of course, a basic resource, and, again, the chlorine comes 
through the electrolytic decomposition of common salt. 

At the date of the armistice Edgewood was making 30 tons a day 
of mustard gas and other great plants were building—all to a total 
daily capacity of 200 tons. The military importance of the material 
may be judged by the fact that at one time proposals were under dis- 
cussion for an output of 1,400 tons a day. 

Since the Germans introduced mustard gas, it is pleasant to be able 
to say that we ultimately greatly outdistanced them not only in the 
efficiency of the process itself, but in the amount and rate of produc- 
tion, which last was finally ten times that of Germany. 

As the wearing of a gas mask, particularly of the earlier types, 
greatly reduced the efficiency of troops and tended to lower their 
morale, substances which forced the wearing of the mask proved 
highly effective. They were known as tear gases and involved bro- 
mine as an essential constituent. Our domestic source of bromine is 
certain subterraneous brines, especially those about Midland, Mich., 
and a bromine plant was built with an annual capacity of 650,000 
pounds of this element. 

The tear gas adopted by us was brombenzyl cyanide, and a single 
shell thus loaded could force the wearing of masks over an area so 
extensive that from 500 to 1,000 phosgene shells would be required 
for the same effect. The compound itself was made by chlorinating 
toluol, thereby forming benzyl chloride, which was mixed with sodium 
eyanide in alcoholic solution and distilled with the production of 
benzyl cyanide. Finally, this was treated with bromine vapor. Thus 
the production of this single compound involves the electrolysis of 
salt to obtain chlorine, the distillation of coal for toluol, the bringing 


224 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


together of soda, iron, and nitrogen to react for the formation of 
sodium cyanide, the distillation of grain or molasses or sugars derived 
sodium cyanide, the fermentation and distillation of grain or molasses 
or sugars derived from wood waste for alcohol, and the extraction of 
bromine from deep-well brines. 

We shipped to Europe in bulk of all these gases 3,662 tons, to- 
gether with 18,600 Livens drums loaded with phosgene. Edgewood 
was, moreover, a filling station with a filling capacity of nearly 1,000 
tons of gas a week or one million two hundred thousand 75-milli- 
meter shells per month for the time being, with extensions under 
way to double that output. The Edgewood production of filled 
shells was, however, greatly restricted by the failure in deliveries 
of shells and boosters, only 300,000 of the former and 200,000 of the 
latter being available monthly. 

The demand for pyrotechnics, including signal rockets, parachute 
star rockets, flares, smoke torches, and 20 styles of star shells to the 
number of several million in all, strained the producing capacity 
of the country to the utmost and involved the production in large 
amounts of many special materials. Phosphorus, for example, was 
largely used in smoke shell, as was also stannic chloride in the smoke 
funnels of the navy. Magnesium was required in great amount for 
wing tip flares for the night landing of airplanes and for ground 
flares. ‘The airplane flare for night bombing carried 32 pounds of 
magnesium, was suspended by a silk parachute, and burned for 10 
minutes with a power of 320,000 candles. 

The development of the airplane greatly extended the demand for 
military supplies, the chief materials entering into their construction 
being wood, sheet steel, wire, cloth, dope, and varnish. For the 
frames certain qualities of spruce are preferred, although some 
species of fir are also used. We took in all 180,000,000 feet of air- 
craft lumber out of our northwestern forests, of which two-thirds 
went to the Allies, while one-third was used by us. The average 
plane utilizes less than 500 feet from 1,000 feet of rough lumber, 
but in the earlier production as much as 5,000 feet of rough lumber 
per plane was consumed. In exchange for finished planes, we sup- 
plied the French with raw materials and parts, sending them about 
35,000,000 feet of spruce, fir, and cedar, 7,000,000 of mahogany or 
enough for 40,000 propellers, 4,000 tons of aluminum, much dope for 
the wings, ball bearings, steel, brass, copper, and aluminum tubing, 
together with sheet metal of various sorts. 

The average plane requires 250 yards of fabric, and some of the 
larger over 500 yards, in addition to that needed for spare wings. 
Linen was the cloth first used, but with the cutting off of supplies 
from Russia and the Courtrai district in Belgium, the stock was soon 


WATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 995 


inadequate. <A better cloth was thereupon developed in this country 
from long staple mercerized cotton, and over 10,000,000 yards were 
woven and delivered. 

At the time of the armistice the United States had contracted for 
more than 100,000 aircraft engines, of which over 64,000 were Liberty 
engines, for which Ford was turning out 2,000 rough cylinders a day. 

At one time the entire airplane program was jeopardized by the 
limitations of the supply of acetate of lime, the source not only of 
acetic anhydride essential to the production of the cellulose acetate 
used for airplane dopes, but also of acetone required by the British as 
a solvent in the manufacture of cordite. In this situation Arthur D. 
Little, Inc., had the satisfaction of developing in its laboratories 
two alternative dopes which made no demand upon the acetate of 
lime supply. One had for its base cellulose butyrate, the acid for 
which was derived from Pacific Coast kelps. The other used a solu- 
tion of zein, a protein existing in the germ of Indian corn. In all 
more than 1,300,000 gallons of airplane dopes were made in the 
United States. 

At the date of the armistice we had produced 11,754 planes and 
were making over 10,000,000 rounds of aircraft ammunition per 
month. 

Besides the high explosive bombs used in aero warfare, interest 
attaches to other types, among which may be mentioned the incen- 
diary bombs and the dummy bombs for target practice. The former 
weighed 40 pounds each and were loaded with an oil-emulsion- 
thermit mixture and metallic sodium, the latter to nullify efforts 
to put out the fire by the use of water. Over 122,000 incendiary 
bombs were ordered, and 86,000 were received. The demand for 
dummy bombs was even greater. These were made of terra cotta 
at a cost of about $1 each. They carried a small charge of phos- 
phorus and a loaded paper shot-gun shell. On contact they emitted 
a puff of smoke to advise the aviator of the accuracy of his aim. 

Before leaving aviation supplies mention may well be made of the 
alloy resistance wire woven into the aviator’s clothing to supply 
warmth on the passage of an electric current. 

The war vastly extended and developed the old art of camouflage, 
and its practice made great demands upon burlap from India, which 
was used by the British and ourselves, and upon raffia from Mada- 
gascar, which the French employed. Both materials were employed 
in strips, woven into fish net and wire netting, and colored with an 
oil emulsion paint. Some types of battery positions required 4,000 
square yards of camouflage cover, and hangars and hospitals took 
great amounts. All told, we required for these purposes alone about 
3,000,000 square yards of burlap a month. 


226 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919 


Out of the great multitude of miscellaneous supplies a few may 
be selected as especially significant. We shipped abroad 21,000 tons 
of steel barbed wire. ‘The Germans used in barbed wire a manganese 
steel which our first cutters could not sever. They had, therefore, 
to be redesigned. We used over 200,000 marching compasses and 
ordered 14 million trench knives with cast-bronze handles. Files 
were required by tens of millions, and more than 500,000,000 pieces 
of small hardware. A million currycombs, 1,200,000 axes, 76,000 
lariats, and nearly as many 5-foot steel measuring tapes were minor 
items of supply, as were a quarter million storage batteries for radio 
work and 74 million feet of moving-picture film. ‘The balloon pro- 
gram called for 20,000,000 yards of highly specialized cloth, which 
required the construction of thousands of looms and therefore in- 
creased the demand for steel. In four days of the final drive of 
our troops in the Argonne district, the photograph sections of the 
air service made and delivered 100,000 prints from negatives taken 
above the battle lines. Such service involved the problems of op- 
tical glass and all the details of photograph equipment. On Novem- 
ber 11, 1918, there were in France 282 American telephone exchanges, 
9,000 stations, about 15,000 telephone lines, and in all, 96,000 miles 
of newly constructed long distance telephone and telegraph lines. 
The Signal Corps requirements for outpost wire were rising to 68,000 
miles a month, and we were producing 40,000 miles. This was a 
twist of two strands, each composed of four bronze wires and three 
of hard carbon steel. They were stranded together, coated first with 
rubber, then with cotton yarn, and finally, with paraffin. 

The brief and necessarily meager reference which has been made 
to a few of the more important or spectacular items of military 
supply in the war just closed has had no other object than that of 
calling attention for the moment to the extraordinary range and 
volume of the demands made upon the resources and productive 
capacity of a country by military necessities. Our entry into war 
was not unlike the passage from one type of civilization to another. 
We had to accomplish in a few months a change as profound as that 
with which Japan was confronted in 1854 when Perry’s ships cast 
anchor in the Bay of Tokyo. This new civilization was wholly alien 
to the old in its social conditions and in its demands upon the prod- 
ucts of industry. It quickly taught us that troops can be organized 
and trained far more quickly than industry can be revolutionized to 
supply their needs. And, as the Assistant Secretary of War, Mr. 
Benedict Crowell, from whose report much of these data have been 
taken, says in his introduction thereto, “The experience of 1917 and 
1918 was a lesson in the time it takes to determine types, create de- 
signs, provide facilities, and establish manufacture.” 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 927 


One may add that it has also taught that no country is wholly self- 
contained as regards the materials essential to successful military 
operations. It must keep the seas open for the transport of supplies 
from other countries, as, conspicuously in our own case, rubber, tin, 
manganese, graphite, platinum, wool, and knitting needles. 

Jt is in this connection instructive to consider briefly the position 
of Germany as to natural resources at the beginning of the war and 
the part which natural resources played in respect of Germany’s in- 
centives, aids, and inhibitions. These and other interesting relation- 
ships are admirably presented in The Strategy of Minerals, pre- 
pared by members of the Geological Survey, to whom I am indebted 
for the statistics which follow concerning mineral supplies. 

The greatest body of iron ore in Europe was shared by France, 
Germany, and Luxemburg. France was most favorably placed as to 
actual reserves, but Germany had the advantage in mining costs. 
France has no adequate supply of coking coal, while Germany has a 
great supply of the best coal of this type in Europe. Even now 
that the Lorraine ores and the Saar Basin coal have passed under 
French control the position of Germany is not irreparably bad since 
ore commonly and naturally goes to coal. 

These minette iron ores of eastern France were coveted by Ger- 
many, and had Germany in 1871 held Belfort and Verdun she 
would have had in her possession the whole iron-ore reserves of the 
Moselle Basin, and such possession would at least have removed a 
great incentive to war and might well have made her invincible had 
she gone to war. 

In 1913 Germany produced a little more iron than France, Bel- 
gium, and the United Kingdom together. AI four countries pro- 
duced 48 per cent of the world’s output, to which the United States 
- contributed 40 per cent in 1913, and in 1916 a little over 50 per cent. 

In 1913 three-fourths of the German ore mined in Germany proper 
came from annexed Lorraine, and four-fifths of all the ore produced 
within the German Zollverein came from Lorraine and Luxemburg. 
At the onset of the war Germany obviously aimed to cripple 
France by crippling the French iron industry, and her early control 
of the coal and iron of Belgium and northern France proved of the 
utmost advantage to her and did much to prolong the war. 
Nine-tenths of the iron ores mined in France came from the closely 
contiguous districts of Longwy, Briey, and Nancy. Germany, there- 
fore, at once invaded the Briey district and the Longwy district im- 
mediately thereafter. As a consequence, Germany in September, 
1914, held respectively, 68, 83, 80, and 75 per cent of France’s ca- 
pacity for producing coal, iron ores, pig iron, and steel and was in 
complete control of the coal-mining and iron-making industries of 
Belgium. 


928 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 1919. 


Had Germany won and held the minette ores of eastern France 
she would now be in possession of 45 per cent of the iron-ore reserves 
of Europe and could have supplied 77 per cent of her requirements 
from her own ores, as contrasted with 56 per cent before the war. 
There has never been a balance between German iron ores and coal, 
the excess being largely on the side of coal. She had, however, access 
to the rich iron ores of Sweden and through her alliance with Turkey 
to the chrome ores of Asia Minor. As A. C. Spencer, of the Geo- 
logical Survey, says: “Truly iron entered largely into the underly- 
ing strategy of Germany’s attempted conquests: First, providing a 
reliable industrial basis for war; second, offering a means of quickly 
disabling France; and third, proffering a grand prize in the minette 
ores 01 Muerthe-et-Moselle, which if attained would insure indus- 
trial supremacy against all rivals.” 

Among mineral resources Germany’s monopoly was potash, and 
even this is now likely to be broken with the passing to France of 
the great deposits of Alsace and the stimulus given to potash pro- 
duction in this country by the war. Even more significant is the 
fact that, except for coal, cement, and possibly zinc, Germany has 
always been forced to import mineral supplies to supplement the 
deficiencies of her own production or reserves. As to essential war 
minerals, like tungsten, manganese, copper, nickel, tin, platinum, 
chromite, sulphur, and petroleum, German resources were either 
wholly inadequate or totally lacking. As a necessary preliminary to 
any serious war Germany had therefore to build up through im- 
portation great stores of these war minerals, and it is highly sig- 
nificant to note that German importations of nickel, manganese, 
brass, sulphur, and tin showed large increases during the immedi- 
ate prewar period. For example, the average increase in the general 
trade of Germany with the United States was only about 7 per 
cent a year, whereas shortly before the war German demands upon 
us for war minerals and metals jumped suddenly in some cases 
several hundred per cent. 

Moreover, a few years ago, Germany, like all the rest of the world 
outside of Scandinavia, was dependent upon Chile for sodium nitrate 
as a source of the nitric acid which puts the energy into explosives. 
In view of this dependence, and through fear of diminishing sup- 
plies, the attention and effort of chemists were directed to the atmos- 
phere as a source of nitrogen through fixation of this component 
as ammonia, nitrate of lime, or otherwise. 

Up to about 1910 or 1911 there was practically no fixation of 
nitrogen outside of plants in Norway and Sweden, but about 1912 
Germany, which had been experimenting with the arc process, had 
one quite large Haber plant in process of construction. In 1915. 


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NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 229 


two large Government cyanamid plants were started, though these 
were not completed until well into 1916. According to figures con- 
tained in the final report of the nitrogen products committee of the 
English, Government, which was issued in January, 1920, Germany 
hada producing capacity in 1915, which carried through into 1916, 
of 500,000. metric tons of cyanamid, which, is roughly equivalent 
to 90,000 tons, of nitrogen. .When: one realizes the importance. of 
nitrogen and its derivatives in military operations, one can see to 
what purpose Germany’s early experiments in its production were 
directed. ) 

Germany did possess. a, highly developed by-product coke: and 
dyestuff industry, with all its collateral advantages in the manufac- 
ture of high explosives from benzol, toluol, etc., and she had a vast 
and highly organized and elastic industry, which is at least as essen- 
tial to military success as the natural resources and raw materials 
of a nation. 

Having thus. in mind a few of the more salient features in the 
situation of our chief antagonist as to ultimate supplies, and keep- 
ing still before us the compelling and inclusive demands of military 
necessity, let us consider briefly the more direct relationships of 
these demands to specific natural resources. 

‘Coal puts the bone in the teeth of battleships; and though petro- 
leum may for.a time make the, bone look larger we shall ultimately— 
and it may be soon—return to coal for driving power. Its energy 
turns the propellers of steamships, transports, cargo. carriers, and the 
countless other. vessels whose sailing orders are determined by the 
needs of war. It hauls foodstuffs, munitions, and raw. materials. 
It smelts ores, converts hematite and limonite to steel. It furnishes 
light and heat and power. Through its distillation coal) supplies 
benzol, toluol, ammonia, and phenol for explosives; coke for carbide; 
acetylene and carborundum; graphite for electrodes and for lubri- 
cants; and coal tar for dyes. The distillation of a ton. of average 
coal yields 1,500. pounds of coke, 10,000 cubic feet of gas, 22 pounds 
of sulphate of ammonia, more than 2 gallons of benzol, and 9 gallons 
of tar. Under the stimulus of war the output of our by-product coke 
ovens was increased to more than one-half the total coke output in 
1918. Such increase was highly important since it forms the basis 
for the coal-tar industries, including dyestuffs, high explosives, and 
synthetic drugs, as salvarsan. 

Germany has more coal than other European countries, but only 
one-eighth as much as the United States, which has 21 times as much 
as Great Britain. Moreover, the output of British coal was for a 
time jeopardized by the lack of mine timbers from the Baltic ports. 
‘France has always depended largely upon Germany for coal and must 

12573°—21——-16 


230 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


still so depend, although her control of the Saar Basin gives France 
about 18,000,000 tons of coal a year. 

Since coal is a basic raw material, without which no modern war 
could be fought at all, it is gratifying to realize that not only is the 
United States the greatest coal producer in the world, but that we 
also have the world’s greatest reserves of iron ore within the North 
Atlantic Basin, where our coal reserves are largely located. Ninety- 
six per cent of the world’s reserves of coal are in the northern hemi- 
sphere; about 70 per cent are in North America, and over 50 per cent 
in our own country. Our production of soft coal in 1918 was over 
585,000,000 tons, an increase of 38 per cent over the output in 1914. 

Industrial preeminence and therefore military power rest on coal 
and iron. Together, these constitute 90 per cent of the world’s min- 
eral output. Of all belligerent countries the United States is the only 
one with well-balanced coal and iron reserves. Ore goes to the coal, 
and the coal locations, therefore, determine those of industrial de- 
velopments and markets and consequently those of iron furnaces. 

Speaking generally, the limiting factor in coal production is the 
number of empty cars which the railroads can place at the mines, 
and our own coal troubles during the war were really due to the 
congestion of our railroads due to other freight. A similar conges- 
tion of transportation was experienced in all the belligerent coun- 
tries and emphasizes the need of avoiding coal transportation wher- 
ever possible. This has led to proposals for superpower plants at 
the mines in England and to great plans for common-carrier trans- 
mission lines for power in the industrial region along our own North 
Atlantic coast. 

Before the war it was a common practice to haul the coal from 
one field over other coal fields and past the mouths of operating mines 
much nearer the ultimate destination of the coal so transferred. The 
zoning system which we adopted put an end to much of this need- 
less transportation and led consumption to the territory nearest the 
producing field. Moreover, in a time of war a consumer’s right to 
any commodity must be conditioned by the relation of his activities 
to the national necessity, and the early recognition of this limitation 
led to the establishment of priority schedules covering coal and other 
essential raw materials. 

The railroads of the United States use 27 per cent of the coal 
we mine, and they use much of it in transporting coal itself. To 
save transportation, therefore, a system of rigid inspection was insti- 
tuted, for with crippled transportation facilities we could not afford 
to haul slate and bone and dirt. 

Nowhere in the world does there exist another general storehouse 
of useful minerals comparable to the United States, but natural 


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NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 231 


resources in themselves have only potential values, which require 
for their realization industrial skill, technical knowledge, great 
reserves of capital, and efficient transportation. We have been able 
to demonstrate that, with the exception of the last, we are in posi- 
tion to bring effectively to bear all these factors so essential to 
quantity production. Even as regards transportation we are, so 
far as the steel industry is concerned, most fortunately situated; so 
fortunately, indeed, that the Great Lakes waterway, which permits 
a transportation rate of less than 0.7 mill per ton-mile, may properly 
be regarded as the determining factor in our position as the world’s 
greatest producer of iron and steel. In the decade ending in 1913 
we produced 248,000,000 metric tons of pig iron. The German out- 
put was 140,000,000, and the combined production of the United 
Kingdom, France, and Belgium 154,000,000. Under the stress of 
war our blast and steel furnaces increased their output by 30 to 40 
per cent respectively between 1913 and 1919, thereby justifying the 
conclusion that the United States must now possess one-half the 
steel-making capacity of the world. During the same period the 
British output increased 27 per cent. 

We have already had in the methods of fixing atmospheric nitro- 
gen an interesting example of the extent to which both the absolute 
and relative military position of a country may be modified by a 
new chemical process. An equally striking example is found in the 
metallurgy of steel. The original Bessemer process, using an acid 
lining in the converter, required for its effective operation pig iron 
with an extremely low phosphorus content. Thomas and Gilchrist in- 
troduced the basic converter process by lining the crucible with cal- 
cined dolomite and adding lime to the charge, dolomite itself being 
a mixed carbonate of lime and magnesia. They were thus enabled 
to operate on iron containing 2 per cent or even more of phosphorus, 
thereby making available the great reserves of ore in Sweden, Rus- 
sia, Central Europe, and Lorraine, and so introduced new and dis- 
turbing factors in the industrial, military, and diplomatic situations 
in many countries. . . 

The supreme importance to modern civilization of alloy steels in 
naval construction, ordnance, metal working, automobiles, and count- 
less other directions is too well known to require comment. The 
metals commonly used in these alloys are manganese, chromium, 
molybdenum, nickel, tungsten, vanadium, and latterly zirconium, 
which finds its chief use in steel for armor plate and armor-piercing 
projectiles. Its ores come from Brazil, but the metal may be ob- 
tained from the zircon sands of the South and from western mine 
tailings. The United States is well supplied with most of these es- 
sential metals, though there is a deficiency in ores of manganese and 


932 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


chromium, our domestic ores being of such'relatively low grade that - 


their use would, involve important changes in practice. Practically 
all of our manganese, or 99 per cent, was, before the war, imported 
by our, steel makers from ‘south Russia, then from India, and finally 
from Brazil, but during the war we.so greatly increased.our domestic 
production as to become, for the time being nearly, independent. We 
were most fortunate in this regard, for in modern steel making man- 
ganese has become almost as necessary asiron itself. 

Chromium is,another of the most essential war minerals, although 
this is by no means monopolized in steel making. Its use has revolu- 
tionized the tanning industry, and,its compounds are much used in 
dyeing, particularly in the khaki shades. We have always produced 
a little chromite here, but: the world’s center of production was 
Turkey and later Rhodesia and New Caledonia. Before the war we 
obtained our chromite chiefly from Rhodesia and New Caledonia. It 
now comes from Brazil, Cuba, and California, but our own deposits 
will soon be exhausted if worked at the war rate. 

Nickel is perhaps the most widely. used alloy component of steel, 
its presence conferring such hardness and elasticity that nickel steel 
is used for steamship shafts, armor plate, shells, structural steel, 
and rails. The world depends for its supply. upon Canada, whose 
reserves are estimated to contain 150,000,000 tons of ore, an amount 
apparently sufficient to,meet the requirements for another century. 

Modern metal working, with all that it, involves in the use of tools 
and the construction of machines, may, be said to rest on tungsten 
because of the greatly increased efficiency of cutting tools of tung- 
sten steel, due to the fact that tungsten raises the temperature at 
which steel holds its temper. Tungsten ores are rare and widely 
scattered, the United States, Burma, Indo-China, Bolivia, and 
Portugal being the principal producers. The world’s output is only 
about 25,000 tons of tungsten ores figured on the basis of 60 per cent 
of tungstic oxide. These are smelted in electric furnaces for metallic 
tungsten or alloys like ferrotungsten. Tungsten has a further and 
important, although indirect, influence upon the efliciency of produc- 
tion through its use in mazda lamps, in which the tungsten filament 
functions so efficiently as to produce far more light with the same 
expenditure of current. It is interesting to note that not only did 
Germany hoard tungsten before the war, but that the submarine 
Deutschland carried. 55,000 pounds of the metal from the United 
States. 

The universality of the use of copper both in war and peace needs 
no comment, and the greatly increased demand for the metal, due 
to the expanding demands of the electrical industries, is manifest. 
The proportion of such use to that of iron has steadily increased from 
the ratio of 1 to 104 in the period from 1880 to 1885 to 1 to 53 in 


a i 
eee a. a) ng, iw. 


Set ee 


Soi eaeyree 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 233 


1916. The demand for copper by the Central’ Powers caused roofs 
to be stripped and brass and bronze articles of use or ornament to be 
everywhere commandeered. Our own position in regard to copper 
may be summed up in the statement that the Americas’yield 75 per 
cent of the world’s output and the United States almost 60 per cent. 

We have in the flotation process as applied to copper production 
another good example of a new industrial method, due to research, 
which in the nick of time permitted a vast’ expansion in the output 
of an essential metal. 

Zine, which finds a great use in brass, composed normally of two- 
thirds copper and one-third zinc, enters obviously into the constitu- 
tion of a vast variety of military supplies. The demand for zinc led 
to an orgy of zinc smelting because most of the world’s smelters 
outside of Germany and the United States stood along the Meuse 
River in direct’ line of the’ German advance. As to this metal 
Germany was favorably placed, since one of the greatest zinc fields 
in the world is in Silesia. The Allies, however, suffered immense 
losses of brass during their retreat early in 1918, and toward the 
end of the war the United States became practically theirsole 
source of supply. The shortage of copper in Germany led in that 
country to the'substitution therefor of various alloys of zinc. 

Lead is one of our most useful metals and has been identified with 
military operations since the arquebus replaced the crossbow. It is 
almost indispensable for pipe, solder, bearing metals, terne-plate, 
small arms, bullets, shrapnel, and functions with perhaps equal 
effectiveness in the type so essential to propaganda. The United 
States has always imported much lead ore from Mexico. The supply 
was short in 1917, but increasingly stable conditions in that country 
enabled her to send us almost as much lead in the first half of 1918 
as we imported from all countries in the previous year. 

For many uses antimony is closely associated with lead by reason 
of the greatly increased hardness of antimony-lead alloys.’ Anti- 
mony, therefore, also finds extensive use’in the type foundry and is 
a common constituent of bearing metals. 

Reference has already been made to the ubiquity of the indispen- 
sable tin can, and the shortage of tin was the cause of almost as much 
anxiety as that of platinum, the world’s output of 140,000 tons being 
inadequate to meet the demand. We ordinarily consume 70 per 
cent of the world’s supply, to which we contribute practically 
nothing. Tin finds important use as a constituent of solders, in 
which, however, it may, if necessary, be replaced’ by cadmium, and 
some cadmium was used in France as a deoxidizer in bronze for tele- 
phone and telegraph equipment. 

Aluminum is one of the most important and interesting of all 

the war metals, and its whole history is replete with peculiar interest. 


234 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


For its production cheap water power is essential, and the raw mate- 
rials involved are bauxite, which we obtain from our Southern States 
or from France, and cryolite, a double fluoride of aluminum and 
sodium, for which the world is dependent upon Greenland. In 1883 
the United States produced only 80 pounds of aluminum, whereas 
our output in 1914 was 80,000,000 pounds. Our producing capacity 
at this time is greater than that of all other nations combined. 
Aluminum is of vast importance in the construction of airplanes and 
dirigible balloons, since it is the lightest metal available. It con- 
stitutes the framework of dirigibles and enters largely into the con- 
struction of their engines and that of automobile parts and engines. 
It is an essential constituent of the explosive ammonal and of thermit 
in its many applications as a constructive and destructive agent. 
Aluminum has, moreover, great potentialities and some present use 
as a substitute for copper in the transmission of electricity. 

The Lewis ground gun has an aluminum heat radiator surround- 
ing the barrel, and the shortage of aluminum actually held up for 
a short time the manufacture of gas masks by reason of the difficulty 
of securing pure aluminum sheet for the eyeglass rims, practically 
all the metal having been absorbed in the making of aluminum die 
castings for shell and other ordnance. For the same reason hun- 
dreds of valuable brain hours were spent in the development of hard- 
rubber die castings and complicated brass stampings merely to save 
the little bit of aluminum required for gas-mask mouthpieces. 
Troubles of this kind could be largely eliminated by the military 
man if in his peace-time studies of design he would allow the neces- 
sary large factor of safety between war-time supplies and demand. 
This is especially true, for example, in the case of design of ordnance, 
such as shell, for if the nose of a shrapnel fuse is made in peace time 
of an aluminum die casting, it is too late when war comes to substi- 
tute anything else, for the change would affect the entire ballistics of 
the shell and its ranging. 

The mineral magnesite, which is a carbonate of magnesium and 
essential to the steel industry by reason of its use for furnace linings, 
was imported previous to the war, but altogether adequate supplies 
are now received from great deposits located in Washington. The 
metal magnesium itself is much lighter and stronger than aluminum, 
but, unfortunately, is very susceptible to corrosion by oxidation. 
Although useful, therefore, in some alloys, as in those with aluminum, 
its chief war value is for flares and pyrotechnics, to which reference 
has already been made. Production in the United States began in 
1915 and in 1917 had reached 116,000 pounds and was increasing very 
rapidly. The electric furnace production of the metal from mag- 
nesium chloride requires cheap water power and coal. 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 235 


With a possible exception of steel, no metal is more vitally essential 
to the conduct of modern warfare than platinum, though there is 
probably not more than 10,000,000 ounces—approximately 425 tons— 
in use in the world to-day, and of this probably 95 per cent came from 
Russia. The importance of platinum is chiefly due to its extensive 
use as a catalyst in the synthetic production of such fundamentally 
basic supplies as sulphuric acid and ammonia, and it functions sim- 
ilarly in the manufacture of many other compounds. It is indis- 
pensable for certain chemical equipment, and a, light film of platinum 
on glass is an essential part of Navy range finders. 

The importance of mercury as a war metal is altogether dispropor- 
tionate to the small amount used. It finds employment in periscope 
mirrors, thermostats, clinical and technical thermometers, and as mer- 
cury fulminate in priming charges. Corrosive sublimate, which is 
vitally important in surgery, is mercuric chloride, and the red oxide 
of mercury finds effective use in paints for ships’ bottoms. We de- 
pend chiefly upon California for our mercury, and the Central Powers 
drew upon Austria and possibly Asiatic Turkey for their supply. 

Graphite crucibles are essential to the industries employing non- 
ferrous metals, and for such crucibles we have heretofore depended 
upon the flake graphite coming from Ceylon, our own supplies of 
graphite being of the amorphous variety. Under the stress of neces- 
sity, however, entirely satisfactory mixtures composed in large part 
of domestic graphite were developed. 

The whole structure of modern chemical industry, with all the 
ramifications arising from military demands, is based upon sulphuric 
acid, made either from pyrites or from native sulphur. Of the latter 
our, immense deposits in Louisiana and Texas made it possible to 
increase our 1913 production of 34 million tons of 50° acid and 23,000 
tons of acid above 66° to 6,000,000 tons of 50° acid in 1917 with 760,000 
tons of the stronger acid, which finds its chief use in the production 
of explosives. Sulphuric acid is also largely used in the refining of 
petroleum and the pickling of metals. ; 

Portland cement, made from limestone and clay or clay-bearing 
limestone, is obviously a military supply of the first importance, en- 
tering into foundations and construction of all sorts—roads, dugouts, 
“ pill boxes,” and even ships, well named Yaith. Fortunately, both 
our producing capacity and our supply of raw materials proved ade- 
quate to all demands. 

Similarly, it may be pointed out that crushed stone for road con- 
struction proved so vitally important to military operations that 
it is said that in France, next to the transportation of troops and 
ammunition, the transportation of crushed stone had priority over 
practically everything else. 


236 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


In spite of the vast and even overshadowing importance of pe- 
troleum and its products as war supplies, space permits only an inci+' 
dental reference thereto. The United States leads the world in’ 
petroleum production and provides about two-thirds of the world’s: 
supply. Fuel oil has revolutionized naval ‘design and tactics, and 
during the fiscal year of 1919 the Navy used 10,500,000 barrels:: 
Practically every piece of operating machinery in the world de- 
pends for its proper functioning upon the lubrication of its moving 
parts by petroleum products. Automotive transportation and the 
flight of airplanes depend for the present at least on gasoline. We 
have reached the peak of our petroleum production, and consump- 
tion has overtaken the supply. Fortunately, we have another source 
of gasoline in natural gas, from which we'secured in 1913, 24,000,000 
gallons and in the first half of 1918, 175,000,000: gallons: Here, 
again, we have, however, no promise oh a dontitahia supply. | 

The effective use of the airship and the ‘observation balloon as 
instruments of war is greatly curtailed by reason of the dangers due 
to the extreme inflammability of the hydrogen upon which their lift- 
ing power depends ‘and the explosive character of mixtures of hydro- 
gen and air. When a bailoon was hit by an incendiary bullet’ the 
interval between the initial burst of flame and the final explosion 
was rarely more than 15 to 20 seconds. ‘The average life of a kite 
balloon’ on an active sector of the Western front was 15 days, ‘while 
some lasted only a few minutes. It became obvious, therefore, early 
in the war that if it were possible to substitute for hydrogen a non- 
inflammable gas of substantially the same lifting power the military 
value of both balloons and airships would be greatly augmented. 
Such a gas—helium—was known to exist in the atmosphere in the 
proportion of 1 volume in 250,000 volumes of air. Its existence in 
proportions reaching 24 per cent by volume had been demonstrated 
in the natural gas from certain wells in Kansas, Texas, and  else- 
where, but prior to 1916 the total world production had not reached’ 
100 cubic feet at a cost of $1,700 or more per cubic foot. On ‘armistice 
day we had on the docks 147,000 cubic feet and were building plants 
for the extraction of 50,000 cubie feet'a day. Thus through the dee- 
laration of war has a natural resource, so rare as to constitute'a chem- 
ical curiosity, suddenly been established as a military necessity of 
the first order.’ Helium can not be ignited or exploded; its diffusion 
rate through balloon fabrics is about two-thirds that of hydrogen ; it 
has over 92 per cent of the lifting power of hydrogen; it permits 
with comparative ease’ the passage of electric discharges, and had 
it been available in quantity would have placed the entire aero- 
nautical program on a vastly more effective basis. | 


NATURAL RESOURCES—LITTLE. 237 


Nothing perhaps could better illustrate than helium the changing 
relation which specific natural resources may bear to military sup- 
plies. The usefulness and value of any natural resource for military 
as for industrial purposes will always be conditioned primarily on 
our own ability to employ them to advantage. Such values are not 
intrinsic, but are established by research, and their basis is scientific 
and technical knowledge. The effective encouragement of science is 
the price of military efficiency. 


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GLASS AND SOME OF ITS PROBLEMS.1 
By Str Hersert Jackson, K. B. E., F. B.S. 


Before I begin the lecture, I should like to say how much I appre- 
ciate the privilege of being asked to give this, the second Trueman 
Wood lecture. Our chairman has stated the origin of these lectures, 
namely, to keep alive the memory of the long and distinguished work 
of Sir Henry Trueman Wood in promoting and increasing our 
knowledge of the arts and sciences in the best interests alike of this 
Society and of the Nation. I am sure I express the feelings of every- 
body present when I say how delighted we are that he is here to- 
day and when I express the hope that he may be able to attend many 
more lectures to be given in his honor. 

Tt was suggested to me that this lecture should have something to 
do with glass, and it was hoped that there might be experiments. 
The production of glass is difficult to illustrate efficiently in the 
course of a lecture. It will, therefore, only be dealt with very briefly 
and generally before turning to some of the problems connected with 
glass which I hope to make the chief part of this lecture. The chair- 
man, in his opening remarks, has spoken of the many varieties of 
glass. We hear of optical glass, window glass, table glass, indus- 
trial and scientific glass, opal glass, colored glass, etc., all of which 
have many properties in common while exhibiting differences which 
depend chiefly upon the materials used in making them, the various 
proportions in which the materials are used and, to some extent also, 
on the methods of manufacture. It will be convenient to take 
window glass as one of the simplest of glasses, and briefly to con- 
sider its composition. The essential materials required are sand, 
chalk, and sodium carbonate. When these are heated together in 
suitable proportions, there results a glass containing silica, or the 
oxide of the nonmetal silicon; lime, or the oxide of the metal cal- 
cium ; and soda, or the oxide of the metal sodium, combined together 
to form what is generally spoken of as a soda lime silicate. Of 
these ingredients the silica is the acid constituent, and the lime and 
soda are the basic constituents of the glass. Most glasses are com- 
posed of acids as oxides of nonmetals, and bases as oxides of metals 
combined together. The chief acid ingredients to be found in various 


1Reprinted by permission from the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Jan. 16, 1920, 
239 


240 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


glasses are silica, boron trioxide, arsenic trioxide, and pentoxide, 
phosphorus pentoxide, tin oxide, and antimony pentoxide. The chief 
bases are the oxides of potassium, sodium, lithium, barium, calcium, 
magnesium, zinc, and lead. Aluminium oxide, a constituent of sev- 
eral glasses may, in some, play an acid part and in others may act 
as a base. With certain reservations, this may be said also of anti- 
mony trioxide. The list is not exhaustive, but is sufficient to indicate 
that a number of glasses is possible from various combinations of 
these acids and bases.. (The materials used, for producing opals and 
colored glasses will be referred to later.) The number of glasses made 
is very large, and it would take at least all the time at my, disposal 
to describe in any adequate manner how.they differ from one another 
in composition and in those properties, which make each one suitable 
for the purpose for which it was devised. It may, however, be ap- 
propriate here to mention that in the great variety of optical glasses, 
there are many which do not differ materially in composition from 
glasses used for other purposes.. For example, a good window glass 
could be made with pure materials and stirred in the process of its 
manufacture, so as to secure. such a clear and homogeneous product 
as would serve as one type of optical glass. The chief general prop- 
erties which are desirable in. all optical glasses are identity of. com- 
position throughout the whole mass of the glass, great clearness and 
transparency for all the colors of the spectrum, freedom from strain 
arising through imperfect annealing, and durability under ordinary 
exposure to the atmosphere. It will be seen,, therefore, that apart 
from considerations of special optical properties, I refer to the re- 
fractive indices and dispersive powers of various optical glasses; the 
main difference between them and other glasses is that the. highest 
art of the glass manufacture ‘is called. for in their production, and 
great care is needed. to insure purity of the materials used and 
accuracy of proportions, so as not only to be able to produce glass 
of the optical properties required, but, to reproduce it with the closest 
possible identity of composition. With these very brief remarks on 
glass generally, we may turn now to some of the problems which I 
thought might. be interesting to consider, and the first one is how 
far can glass be called a solid? 

A solid is defined in a dictionary. as having a fixed form and being 
in a state in which the component parts do not tend to move freely 
among themselves. With regard.to glass, we may ask for how long 
is it fixed in form, and what are the limitations of freedom of move- 
ment which we ought toconsider? It is a common experience that 
long straight pieces of glass rod or tubing, left supported. so that 
their own weight tends to bend them, will bend in the course of time, 
and in some years will become definitely bowed. Varieties of glasses 


GLASS—JACKSON. 241 


differ in the readiness with which they show this flow under stress; 
but not any glass is ‘so perfectly solid as to give no indication of move- 
ment under stress if tested by sufficiently delicate means. This ques- 
tion of permanent stability of form in glasses has some bearing on the 
choice of glass for the manufacture of large lenses and prisms, and 
the flowing of the surface of glass under mechanical pressure comes 
in as a very important matter in the explanation of the mechanism 
of polishing glass surfaces. A great deal has already been written 
on this subject; and it would take too long to deal with it here. An- 
other reason why I refer to it but intend to leave it is that I hope it 
will not be long before the published papers and other work of Sir 
George Beilby on the influence of mechanical disturbance on the 
physical state of a very large number of substances will be brought 
together into one connected story, when it will be seen that this sub- 
ject of polishing glass has been dealt with in a comprehensive man- 
ner, and that the principles underlying it are shown to have very 
wide application. 

The question of the relative plasticity of various glasses has two 
important bearings which are of some interest. For many indus- 
trial and scientific purposes it is necessary to be able to seal metallic 
wires into glass, and early in the war some difficulties were experi- 
enced in obtaining suitable glasses. To obtain successful joints be- 
tween the metal and glass without fear of the latter cracking, it 
was generally considered that the glass aimed at should be one which 
had a coefficient of expansion as close as possible to that of the 
metal. intended to be used, and there is no doubt that this question 
of expansion has to be taken into account. In making a large num- 
ber of glasses and in experimenting with them there did not appear 
to be'that close connection between the coefficient of expansion of 
the glass and its behavior with metal wires which was at first ex- 
pected. ‘The coefficient of expansion of copper is about double that 
of platinum, and the coefficient of iron is about midway between the 
two. Glasses were made which gave successful joints with platinum 
and copper wires, but which cracked inevitably with iron wire. It 
did not appear, therefore, that the coefficient of expansion was the 
only factor to be taken into consideration. It is an important factor, 
but not the only one, and it soon became clear from the study of 
various glassés that the plasticity of the glass had a great deal to 
do with its utility. A careful examination showed that there was 
evidence that in the case of soft metals, like copper and platinum, 
the glass in setting could pull and deform the metal wires so that 
no great strain was permanently left in the glass. With hard metals 
like iron and tungsten, it was necessary to devise a glass which had 
marked plasticity over such a long range of temperature that when 


9492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


the glass and metal joint cooled, the glass would flow and follow 
the contraction of the metal and so the stress would, to some extent, 
be relieved. And this is an example of the need of asking the 
question: Is glass truly a solid, and how far can a glass be made 
which will flow, very much less, of course, than pitch, but in an 
analogous manner? The other bearing of the question is on the 
cracking of glass vessels with rapid changes of temperature. It is 
clear that.if the strain set up by such changes can be quickly and 
readily released, the danger of cracking will be very small. The 
coefficient of expansion is, of course, a very important factor in this 
respect. Jt is well known that vitreous silica vessels can be heated 
to redness and plunged into cold water without cracking, and this is, 
no doubt, correctly considered to be due almost entirely to the low 
coefficient of expansion of silica. In the case of glasses also, the 
lower the coefficient of expansion of a glass the better will that glass 
stand rapid changes of temperature; but it is possible to make 
glasses approximately with the same coefficient of expansion and to 
find one—and that, perhaps, the one with a slightly higher coefficient 
of expansion—which will not crack under conditions in which the 
other cracks readily, and a study of the two glasses shows that the 
more stable one is the more plastic. On the whole, perhaps, it is not 
too much to say that glass may be looked upon as an extremely 
viscous liquid so slow in its movements in some types of glass that 
ages might elapse before any marked change in form could be 
observed under a strain just short of a breaking one for the glass, 
while in others it is possible to show that the glass does flow, even 
at the ordinary temperature, to a small extent in a relatively short 
time. 

The next problem to be considered may be also put in the form of 
the question: Is glass truly amorphous or vitreous or has it any 
crystalline structure or tendency to crystalline structure? There 
are many substances which can be obtained in the vitreous state 
and also in the crystalline state, and which can be changed from one 
to the other. As one example, arsenic trioxide may be mentioned. 
It can be produced as a clear transparent glass which slowly changes 
at. the ordinary temperature into an opaque white substance re- 
sembling porcelain in appearance. ‘The opaque white substance is 
crystalline. It is the crystalline variety into which the vitreous will 
be slowly but completely changed. Again, if sulphur near its 
boiling point be poured in a thin stream into cold water it sets as 
plastic threads, and for our purposes we may speak of this as the 
vitreous form of sulphur; left at the ordinary temperature, it slowly 
changes into the crystalline form. 

Two other examples may be given which, in a way, are perhaps more 
closely analogous with glass, since they are solutions of substances, 


GLASS—JACKSON, 943 


and not merely single substances as in the previous illustrations. 
Solutions of sodium acetate and Rochelle salt, obtained by adding to 
hot water as much of the salts as will dissolve and cooled so that no 
unfiltered air can enter the containing vessels, and carry nuclei to start 
crystallization, remain clear and fluid at the ordinary temperature. 
If such a “supersaturated ” solution of sodium acetate be cooled in 
liquid air it is converted into a vitreous solid quite clear and trans- 
parent. On removal from the liquid air its temperature rises and very 
soon crystallization starts and proceeds right through the vitreous 
mass.’ The solution of Rochelle salt treated in the same way yields a 
similar vitreous mass, but as it warms up no crystallization takes 
place. It slowly goes back to the original liquid condition. The 
cold vitreous sodium acetate solution may be taken as analogous to a 
glass from which crystals readily separate on warming up, while 
the Rochelle salt is analogous to a glass which shows no tendency 
to crystallize through the whole range of temperature from the 
solid form to the point at which it is a mobile liquid. Glasses are 
known which tend to crystallize in all degrees of readiness. As a 
simple glassy substance, zine silicate may be taken. It can be ob- 
tained, by moderately quick cooling of the molten mass, ina vitreous 
form which is stable for a number of years—at least, some has re- 
mained with no sign of crystallization at the ordinary temperature 
for 22 years. By heating to a few degrees above its softening point, 
it changes to a translucent crystalline mass. Taking a more complex 
glass, but still a moderately simple one, we may study the behavior 
of heat on a lime soda silicate glass. The specimen of greenish glass 
with some large and many smaller opaque nodules in it was given 
to me in the early part of the war by Mr. Frank Wood as an example 
of glass taken out of a tank furnace. The nodules are calcium 
silicate, which is the least fusible silicate potential in the glass. 
They have been formed through the glass in the particular part of 
the furnace from which it was taken being at a temperature too low 
to keep this silicate in solution or combination, and it has separated 
out in the form shown. To get this glass back to a complete vitreous 
state again would require a somewhat higher temperature than is 
used in the manufacture of the glass, since the calcium silicate is 
itself very infusible, and the rest of the glass has to be made very 
fluid before such masses of this silicate can be dissolved in any 
reasonable time. . 
This glass, then, in a molten state, is an example of a solution out 
of which a slightly soluble constituent has separated, when the condi- 
tions were suitable for that separation. It may be interesting to 
turn for a moment to a consideration of conditions for crystallization 
and to go back to simple glassy bodies such as zine silicate and some 
borates. With all the vitreous substances which have been tried and 


244 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


have been made to crystallize, there is.a certain’ temperature at. which 
crystallization proceeds readily, and \for small ranges above or below 
that temperature no. crystallization occurs. Associated. with altera- 
tion of temperature, there is change in, the viscosity of the vitreous 
substances, and hence in 'the freedom: of movement of their particles 
among. one another.. The effect. of this can be well,seen when’ a 
cr iste full of. molten zinc silicate is removed from the furnace... If 
the mass be small so that cooling is quick, it remains a glass and has 
to be: reheated before crystallization occurs. With a larger quantity 
and consequently slower cooling, the mass may become wholly 
erystalline,:or only partly so if, some of. the vitreous form reaches a 
temperature at which its viscosity is too great, and freedom of move- 
ment of its particles too small for rearrangement into crystals to 
take place..Seme borates are very convenient for illustrating the 
change from the vitreous to the crystalline state. Boric anhydride 
itself has not been made to crystallize, and as might be expected, the 
greater the proportion of it-in a borate, the less marked is the 
tendency of a fused mass of that borate to crystallize on cooling. Of 
the three borates, CaO.2B,0,, CaO.B,O,; and 2Ca0.B,O3, the first can 
be obtained vitreous by fairly quick cooling, and pieces of it can, 
with care, be heated again to remove the strain produced, that is to 
say, it can be annealed. The second crystallizes from fusion much 
more readily, cooling has to be quicker to keep it in the vitreous 
state, and only small glassy pieces can be obtained, which crystallize, 
however, on attempting to anneal them. |The third borate can pe 
be kept vitreous in very small globules. 

Statements, however, of the bulk which can be obtained of any 
readily crystallizable vitreous body require ‘a. certain reservation. It 
is well known that: crystallizable bodies in the fluid state may be 
cooled considerably below the temperature at which they would 
ordinarily solidify to a crystalline mass, if they are, freed from all 
foreign material... Water is. a well known example, and among many 
others which could.be cited; mention may be made of salol (phenyl 
salicylate). It melts at 43°.C., and if the crystallization of a film of 
the molten liquid be watched under the microscope, numerous small 
bubbles of gas can, be seen to form during crystallization. The gas 
appears to be modified air. If salol be melted, allowed to solidify, 
and remelted-in vacuo, so as to remove all this gas, and the process 
repeated several times, it is found that the molten salol must, be 
cooled many degrees (50 or more) below its melting point before 
crystallization. takes place. A small, crystal of salol will start it 
unless, as can be done on small quantities, cooling has been carried 
far enough to increase the viscosity of the fluid to such an extent 
that the particles have not the freedom of movement necessary for 


ses la i ac Rw i ried in? i ace Rica ee 


gh hates 


Cia ras 


GLASS—JACKSON. 945 


the change to the crystalline form. So it is also with a great number 
of glassy bodies, and the bulk which will retain the vitreous form can 
be largely increased since by fusion and crystallization several times 
they solidify at progressively lower temperatures, until the time 
comes when they get quite cold in the vitreous state. For instance, 
the amount of vitreous zinc ‘silicate obtained has been raised from 
20 grams at one heating up to a kilogram by 5 fusions. The calcium 
borate 2CaO.B,O, has, after several fusions, been cooled to 500° 
below its ordinary solidifying point. When it does crystallize and 
the temperature rises the recalescence is remarkably bright. Long 
continued heating a few degrees above their solidifying points 
similarly retards the crystallization of many vitreous bodies, but 
it is not so effective as the alternate fusion and _ solidification. 
One reason at least is not far to seek, if the two processes be 
tried so that gases evolved can be pumped off and their amounts 
measured. The process with alternations yields much more gas in 
any given time. With all the glasses, simple silicates and borates, 
which have been studied so far, the chief gas evolved has been found 
to be water vapor, and with the progressive removal of it the 
vitreous state has been found to persist more and more. Direct intro- 
duction of water subsequently has been found to promote ready 
crystallization. . 

In connection with the comparison of long-continued heating of a 
melt with alternate fusion and solidification, one extreme instance is 
worth noting. For a special optical glass, rich in phosphoric anhy- 
dride, an experiment was tried with ammonium phosphate to find if 
this substance could be used in the batch mixture for the glass. A 
nice, clear fluid melt was obtained, which was kept fluid for several 
hours after all traces of gas bubbles had gone. The melt was well 
stirred and cooled till it was quite viscous, when it was left to get 
cold slowly. The next morning the furnace top was found forced off, 
and resting on a spongy mass of about thirty times the volume of the 
original glass melt. The changes occurring when solidification was 
approaching had evidently been accompanied by the evolution of a 
large volume of gas, no doubt most of it ammonia, since this sub- 
stance was smelt on grinding the spongy mass up. The ground ma- 
terial was then fused and gave a stable glass. 

Reverting to the question, Is glass truly vitreous, or is there evi- 
dence of any crystalline structure in it? and bearing in mind that 
glasses are known which exhibit all states of preparedness to yield 
crystals at some temperature or other, and that the tendency to the 
segregation of some ingredient of a glass is enhanced by the presence 
of small amounts of foreign substances and notably of water, one 
would rather expect to find a good many glasses in which some 

12573 °—21——_17 


246 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


evidence could be discovered of the early stages of orderly arrange- 
ment of particles toward the crystalline form. So far, etching glass 
surfaces with hydrofluoric acid has failed to reveal any of the net- 
work of crystalline structure filled in with vitreous material which 
is sometimes described as representing the texture of glass. Tearing 
the surface of glass by letting a film of strong glue dry and contract 
on it is also stated to reveal a crystalline network. Both the etching 
and this method give markings, very like a network, no doubt, but 
the figuring of the surface seems to be more correctly ascribable to 
surface tension. Nothing which could be called definite evidence of 
crystalline structure is visible with any kind of illumination under 
the microscope of such surfaces, but this is not to deny that the 
texture of some glasses may be that of a network of crystalline com- 
pounds inclosing vitreous bodies. 

Certain facts, from which it appears reasonable to conclude that 
many glasses have something of a crystalline nature in them, have 
been obtained from a study of the phosphorescence of various glasses 
and other vitreous compounds exhibiting different degrees of readi- 
ness to pass into the crystalline state on heating. Much of the work 
was done about 20 years ago, but more recent experiments have not 
modified the conclusion then formed that a truly vitreous body ex- 
hibits no phosphorescence in ultra-violet light or X-rays or under 
cathodic discharge. Nearly every glass shows some phosphorescence 
and some show it very strongly, as, for example, the glass from which 
X-ray bulbs are largely made, and which gives the well-known green 
glow when the tube is in use. If some of this glass be fused and 
very rapidly chilled, as, for example, by making a Rupert’s drop from 
it, the glass is practically nonphosphorescent so far as its surface is 
concerned. A very little distance below the surface the chilling was 
not sudden enough to prevent some change of the truly vitreous 
to an attempt at crystalline structure, so that just below the surface, 
as shown by broken pieces of the drop, the glass exhibits phos- 
phorescence. The tail of such a Rupert’s drop, if heated below the 
temperature at which the thin thread of glass bends, is found to be 
strongly phosphorescent, and the glow under cathode discharge can 
be seen to fade slowly away toward the part which was not heated. 
Many observations with vitreous borates and silicates have shown 
similar phosphorescence, appearing more and more strongly as the 
vitreous bodies are made to approach the crystallizing stage. There 
does seem, therefore, reason to state that, given a body which in its 
crystalline state exhibits phosphorescence, it will not do so when it 
is in a truly vitreous state, and to infer that if a glass be phos- 
phorescent there is something of a crystalline nature in it. It would 
not be right to come to the conclusion that a glass showing no phos- 


GLASS—-JACKSON. 947 


phorescence is free from anything crystalline, since there may be 
crystalline structure in it which is not in the sensitive state to be 
revealed by phosphorescence. It would take up too much time to 
elaborate this further, but generally it may be said that a number of 
experiments on glasses, borates, etc., go to show that in some non- 
phosphorescent glasses there is most likely some crystalline forma- 
tion, since the introduction of minute amounts of certain bodies not 
usually present in these glasses, as manufactured, will render them 
quite markedly phosphorescent; and again, the surfaces of Rupert’s 
drops made from these sensitive glasses show no phosphorescence. 
Before going on to deal shortly with some points about devitrifica- 
tion, I may point out that boric anhydride, which has a marked effect 
in preventing crystallization in glasses and in enhancing the stability 
of the vitreous form, is a fatal ingredient to add to a uranium 
glass if strong fluorescence in ultra-violet light be aimed at. 

It may be concluded from what has been said or suggested that 
the question whether glass is crystalline or not has a bearing on the 
problem of devising, manufacturing, and annealing optical glasses. 
It has, perhaps, a more obvious bearing on the problem of producing 
glasses capable of being freely worked in a furnace or in the flame of 
a blowpipe. To the flame worker especially, a glass prone to devitri- 
fication is a source of trouble. It would take at least a whole lecture 
to deal adequately with all the changes noticed in the numerous types 
of glasses which have been studied for their behavior in the flame. 
I will confine myself merely to mentioning that the segregation of 
less fusible vitreous bodies giving a kind of crinkled skin to the glass, 
separation of amorphous silicates, the formation of very minute bub- 
bles giving a gray look to the glass, as well as true crystallization, 
are all frequently referred to as devitrification. It is mainly about 
the last form of it that there is time in this lecture for a few remarks. 

There is great variety in the behavior of glasses in a flame. A 
soda-lime silicate can be made which is hardly workable at all in the 
flame, it devitrifies so soon; but the same glass may be worked, if 
heated by radiation—for instance, in a muffle furnace. At the same 
time, it must be understood that exposure in the muffle may bring 
about devitrification even quickly if the temperature is such as to 
bring the glass to the right state of fluidity for rearrangement of some 
of its particles in the crystalline form. It would appear, therefore, 
that the difference between the behavior of the glass heated in the 
flame, and heated by radiation, may be explained by the difference 
in temperature reached by the glass in each case, and no doubt this 
is a most important part of the explanation. Recalling what was said, 
however, about the conditions for crystallization of vitreous bodies, 
there is, apart from temperature, the question of purity to be taken 


248 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


into account. The problem is whether the readier devyitrification 
of a glass in the flame can be ascribed solely to the surface of the 
glass being exposed to a very high temperature, and so for a thin layer 
reaching the right state of fluidity for crystallization or whether 
chemical action also plays a part, i, e., whether the hot gases of the 
flame act on the glass and assist the segregation of parts of it by dis- 
turbing the chemical equilibrium of the bases and acids of the glass. 
Attempts to get an exact reproduction of the behavior of a glass in a 
flame by exposure of thin pieces of the same glass to intense heat by 
radiation, have given results showing close similarity in some glasses 
and great differences in others. It would be somewhat out of place, 
and certainly tedious in a lecture such as this, to go into the details 
which seem to justify the statement that a survey of the relative be- 
haviors of a very large number of different types of glasses exposed to 
flames or to heat by radiation, and chemical examination of the prod- 
ucts, leads to the conclusion that water, and to a smaller extent carbon 
dioxide, do act chemically when many glasses are heated in flames, and 
that this action plays an important part in the initial stages at least 
of devitrification. As the most simple example, which I can choose, 
of marked difference in composition of a glassy body heated by radia- 
tion, or in a blowpipe flame, ordinary borax, Na,O.2B,0,, may be 
taken. Heated in a muffle up to about 1,450° C. until much of it has 
volatilized, the residue may, according to the time of heating and the 
temperature, have a composition represented by anything between 
Na,O.8B,0, to Na,O.15B,0,; but it has not been found. possible, 
under any conditions, in a klowpipe flame, to get a residue from borax 
with the proportion of boric anhydride greater than is represented 
by about Na,O.3B,0,. It is difficult to ascribe this difference solely 
to the effect of different temperatures. With some glasses, however, 
there is visible evidence of the disturbing influence of the hot gases 
of the flame. A glass containing barium oxide, which was heated 
and reheated many times by radiation of varying intensity, and which 
was most reluctant to show any signs of crystallization, became, in 
the blowpipe flame, or in a hydrogen flame, gray at once over its 
surface, and soon afterwards signs of crystallization were readily 
noticeable. The initial gray effect was seen under the microscope to 
be due to numerous very minute bubbles caused apparently by 
the rapid. absorption and subsequent evolution of gases. As the 
question considered here is the influence of the hot gases of a 
flame to hasten devitrification, there is no occasion to discuss the 
well-known effect of an ordinary blowpipe flame to blacken glasses 
containing lead or similarly reducible metals, except to say that 
experiments show that in many instances the process of alternate 
reduction and oxidation which sometimes occurs when such glasses 


GLASS—JACKSON. 249 


are being worked in the flame, does also appear to hasten devitri- 
fication. 

Mention was made above of the influence of boric anhydride to 
retard the crystallization of glasses in which it is an ingredient. 
Alumina is another substance the presence of which confers upon a 
glass the property of working well in the flame without devitrification. 
More striking, perhaps, as a vitrifying agent is titanic oxide. A soda- 
lime silicate glass was made which could not be worked in a flame 
at all so readily did it devitrify. The substitution of a small amount 
of its silica by titanic oxide converted the glass into one which could 
be heated and worked in the flame almost indefinitely without visible 
change. The statement “without visible change” is true of the 
behavior of this glass; but some, and notably very soft glasses con- 
taining titanic oxide, become colored in the ordinary blowpipe flame 
through reduction of this oxide to a lower state of oxidation. Zir- 
conium, tin, and thorium oxides have been found to promote the sta- 
bility of the vitreous state in a number of glasses prone to devitrifi- 
cation in the flame. They are mentioned as being of the same chemi- 
cal family as silica and titanic oxide; but to deal with the effect of 
a number of rarer compounds not generally employed.in glass-making 
would take up too much of the rest of the time at my disposal.. Arse- 
nic and antimony oxides may also be put among substances which 
render glasses less liable to devitrification; but glasses containing 
these oxides are not suitable for ordinary working in the blowpipe, 
since they darken in the reducing area of the flame. Tin oxide, men- 
tioned above, is also not a generally suitable ingredient, since some 
glasses containing it darken badly through reduction in the flame, 
though others can be made which are quite workable except in the 
hottest kind of blowpipe flame. 

I must leave out of consideration the relation of general composi- 
tion and of varying proportions of ingredients to the tendency of 
glasses to devitrify, and content myself with the remark that for 
glasses of comparable composition those containing soda only as the 
alkali, are usually found to devitrify more readily in the flame than 
those in which the alkali is potash, or a good proportion of potash 
with soda. 

In this lecture it will only be possible to deal more or less briefly 
with opal and colored glasses. Many vitreous bodies which crystal- 
lize fairly readily when heated can be seen to pass through a stage 
in which the material segregating from them appears first as an opal- 
escence increasing in density as the heating is continued and finally 
passing into a visibly crystalline form. A glass approximating in 
composition to Na,O.CaO.,Si0, shows this opalescence well before 
small crystalline nodules appear similar to those in the tank glass 


250 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


referred to earlier. Various silicates and borates of calcium, barium, 
and magnesium show the same kind of phenomenon more readily 
and by quickly cooling when a stage of dense opal appearance is 
reached, sections (or, what is just as good for the purpose, the finely 
ground glassy material mounted in Canada balsam) can be examined 
under the microscope and the opal effect shown to be due to the scat- 
tering of light by numerous small transparent globules. Any glass 
from which, on cooling, part of it segregates out in very small particles 
evenly diffused through the mass, may be called an opal glass whether 
the fine particles are crystalline or amorphous, but the usual opals 
owe their milkiness to globules in which no evidence at least of the 
crystalline state can be found. Under the microscope the globules, 
if sufficiently visible as distinct particles, appear vitreous and trans- 
parent, just as in milk the fat globules are seen to be themselves 
colorless and transparent. Among the many substances which can 
be used to produce opal glasses, the most common are fluorides such 
as calcium fluoride, cryolite (the double fluoride of sodium and alumi- 
nium), and calcium or sodium phosphate, less commonly the arsenates 
of these metals. These substances can be included in the batch mix- 
tures of ordinary soda or potash lime glasses, or lead glasses or zinc 
glasses. In the making, opal glasses are usually clear at a high tem- 
perature and “strike” opal on cooling. To what extent the glass 
has to be cooled before becoming opal depends on the concentration 
of the particular opal-producing compound which is held in solution 
in the very hot glass. Opal glasses produced with phosphates 
“ strike,” generally speaking, at higher temperatures than those made 
with fluorides, the compounds formed in the glass by the latter being 
more soluble than those due to phosphates, at least in the case of most 
opal glasses made on a commercial scale. Whatever opal-forming 
material is potential in the molten glass, if its concentration be great, 
the glass “ strikes’ opal quickly and with relatively little cooling and 
becomes a denser opal as cooling proceeds, until the stage is reached 
when no more material segregates. Just, however, as in the crystal- 
lization of an ingredient in a glass, cooling may occur so quickly 
that a state of viscosity is reached in which crystallization can not 
proceed, so with opal glasses the concentration of the opal-producing 
material may be such that only a little of it comes: out of solution 
before the viscosity of the glass gets too great to allow of further 
separation. With still less concentration, moderate-sized pieces of 
the glass may even solidify in a perfectly clear condition, but again, 
just as reheating will often cause a glass which has cooled vitreous 
to become more or less crystalline, so reheating the intended opal 
glass will cause it to “strike.” This can be illustrated by blowing 
a bulb from a tube of an opal glass. If the bulb be not too thick, 


sh amt ADI PD ge SUE BCE A el Se a pra GRR REN ed tee ESN nar ee oy 


SR ees 


GLASS—JACKSON. 251 


and the concentration of the opal-forming material be not too great, 
the glass will go quite clear in the flame and the blown buib will 
remain quite clear on cooling. If the bulb be then again heated gradu- 
ally in a flame, the whole process from a mere trace of opalescence 
to a very dense opal can be watched. If during the various stages 
of opacity the light transmitted through the glass be observed, it 
will be seen to change from light orange yellow to darker and darker 
orange and orange red, until no more evidence of color is seen, but 
only a general translucence. If thin sections (or ground-up pieces 
mounted in Canada balsam) of the opal glass in the various stages 
be examined under the microscope no separate particles in the earlier 
stages will be seen, even with lenses of large angular aperture, though 
their existence can be inferred from the opalescence which is to be 
well seen under the microscope with suitable black ground illumina- 
tion. In the later stages of denser opal, separate particles are visible, 
and are seen to be progressively larger as the density of the opal is 
greater and greater. 

When an opal glass is required for articles, the making of which 
involves working the glass in a mufile or in the flame, it is important 
that the separated elobules shall not tend to aggregate or to pass 
into the crystalline state, otherwise the glass is found to have a 
rough surface. To guard against this, too great concentration of the 
opal-forming material must be avoided, and some workers prefer a 
glass which does not reach its full opal until it has been in the an- 
nealing oven. Asa general experience with a wide range of all kinds 
of opals, it would appear that fluoride opals are more kindly in 
working than phosphate opals. This is more especially true for the 
denser kinds of opal. For merely opalescent glasses, phosphates 
give quite good results, but with greater concentration of the opal- 
forming substance there is a. tendency toward crystallization, which 
is more marked as a rule in the phosphate than in the fluoride opals. 
A dense opal suitable for working in a flame should “ strike” opal 
even in thin pieces on removal from the flame, and should stand long- 
continued heating without losing its fine polished surface. When 
such a glass while opal is drawn out into a rod and longitudinal sec- 
tions of the rod are examined under the microscope, the globules are 
to be seen egg-shaped or even elongated into minute rods. If an end 
of the opal rod be heated again to softening point and sections of that 
end be examined, the opal-forming material is seen to have gone 
back to spheres, showing that even when separated out the opal ma- 
terial has about the same softening point as the rest of the glass. 
It is easily to be understood that if it has not, and the globules are of 
appreciable size, a glass containing them can not be worked without 
roughening. One more point may be mentioned before concluding 


252 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


this short general account of opals. A glass may be required which, 
while remaining clear in thin pieces after removal from the flame, 
will “strike” on reheating so readily that the temperature needed to 
develop the full density of the opal is not high enough appreciably 
to soften the glass and so cause deformation. One way of securing 
this behavior is to add as an ingredient a small amount of a sub- 
stance which will produce a trace of a compound insoluble in the 
glass except at very high temperatures. In the flame this compound 
persists as a slight turbidity and appears to facilitate the “ striking ” 
by affording nuclei on which the opal material can collect. 

Colored glasses are sometimes divided into two main groups: (a) 
Those in which the coloring matter is diffused in very small particles 
throughout the glass, and which may be likened to colloidal solu- 
tions; and (6) those in which the coloring substances are in a state 
resembling that of solution, and which may be likened more nearly 
to aqueous solutions of colored salts. Just, however, as in aqueous 
solutions there may be traced or inferred all grades of subdivision of 
the coloring matter from separate particles which can be revealed 
by their scattering action on light, and which may be seen in the 
ultra microscope through smaller and smaller particles scattering 
light less and less obviously down to those in the extreme state of 
subdivision frequently described as that of true solution, so in glasses 
similar grades of subdivision of their coloring matter may be seen 
or inferred. 

It is in fact impossible sharply to divide colored glasses into these 
two groups; but it can be said of certain glasses that they are typical 
of group (a), and among the more common of these may be men- 
tioned those owing their colors to the presence of gold, copper, and 
selenium. It is generally considered that these coloring agents exist 
in the glasses as metallic gold, metallic copper and elementary 
selenium respectively, and the varying colors which can be obtained 
in each case appear to depend on the state of division of the coloring 
agents, or at least to be associated with it. How far there is evidence 
that selective absorption of light has also to be taken into account, 
is a question which can hardly be dealt with in a short time. 

With gold the colors most readily obtainable range from red to 
Liue through varying stages of purples. With copper in the metallic 
state the common color is red; but it is possible to get variations 
very similar to those seen in gold glass, and a copper glass giving 
a definite blue by transmitted light has been obtained. It is to be 
understood that this blue was not due to copper in an oxidized condi- 
tion, but to metallic copper. Selenium glasses are also generally red, 
but again states of division of this material can be secured which 
give other colors, although it is difficult, except on a very small scale, 


GLASS—JACKSON, 253 


to obtain other than grays or neutral tints. With each of the 
glasses in which gold, or copper, or selenium is present, quick chilling 
of the molten glass will, as in the case of opal glasses, yield a clear 
and colorless glass, and the greater the concentration of the coloring 
agents, the more sudden must the chilling be to secure this result. 
On reheating these colorless glasses they, like the opals, “strike” 
and yield the colors which could have been obtained by slower cooling 
of the molten glasses. It may be of interest to deal with a gold 
glass a little more in detail. It is not easy to get a strongly colored 
glass with gold added, in the form of gold chloride, to the batch 
mixture of an ordinary soda lime glass. Among the substances which 
enable one to prevent gold separating from the molten glass in the 
ordinary metallic state the commonest used are the oxides of lead, 
tin, and antimony. Bismuth oxide acts similarly, and so also does 
uranyl oxide. There are physical and chemical problems of much 
interest involved in this behavior of these oxides; but it would lead 
us too far into technical details to attempt their discussion here. 
A gold glass containing oxide of tin may be chosen, because it can 
be made so that its behavior can be studied either in the furnace 
or in a blowpipe flame. With a suitable concentration of the gold, 
and very slow cooling of the melt, all the ranges from red by trans- 
mitted light to a pale blue can be observed, and if rods are drawn 
out from the pot at intervals, and examined in a beam of light, it 
will be seen that, starting from a fine deep red by transmitted light 
through the various stages of reddish and blueish purple and blue 
to the pale blue, there is progressively more and more marked scat- 
tering of the light, and the rods look more and more of an opaque 
brown color by reflected light, until in the later stages the appearance 
of precipitated gold is so marked as to leave no doubt that what has 
occurred has been a progressive aggregation of the gold into larger 
and larger particles. Microscopical examination of the glass at the 
different stages gives clear confirmation of this and of the great 
similarity in the manner of separation of the gold to that of the 
materials which give opal glasses. Remarks made under opals and 
crystallization of glasses about the influence of changing viscosities 
apply also, in a general way, to gold glass. There is one point in this 
connection which is worth referring to. If the suddenly chilled and 
colorless glass be returned, in small pieces at a time, to a pot in a 
furnace at a high temperature, about 1400° C., the glass can be melted 
end the gold still retained in it without appreciable loss by separa- 
tion into the ordinary metallic state; but if it be slowly heated up it 
passes through the stages of color previously described and, after 
complete fusion at a high temperature, practically all the gold will 
be found in a button at the bottom of the pot. Now, except in the 


254 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


case of a very soft gold glass, heating and working the colorless glass 
in the flame will only give a red glass, and no passage through the 
other stages is seen, or, in general, if the glass at any of the stages 
of color be worked in the flame, the change of color is but slight. 
The explanation seems to be that, throughout the mass of the glass 
the temperature never reaches high enough to give the state of 
viscosity for free aggregation of the gold particles, while, on the 
immediate surface of the glass the temperature may be so high that 
the gold is retained in solution, as it is in the highly heated furnace. 
Tt is very difficult to get a gold glass to behave like some opal glasses, 
in the sense that it will go clear and colorless in the flame and remain 
so when quickly cooled; but a copper glass can be made in a similar 
manner with tin oxide, which will go quite colorless in the flame. 
Bulbs can be blown from it which remain white on cooling, and the 
gradual “striking” of a deep red color observed on gently reheating 
in the flame. It has been noticed in experiments with some copper 
glasses that, in the initial stages of “striking” the color which 
develops is not red, but a dark neutral tint with a suggestion of olive 
green in it. This may be from copper in the very finest state of 
division in which it can exert visible action on light, or it may be 
due to the presence of traces of oxidized copper in the glass giving 
rise to the well-known dark compounds of cuprous and cupric copper. 
Certainly very dark glasses of rather similar tint can be obtained by 
intentionally allowing some oxidation to take place in the making 
of a red copper glass, or by fusing together a reduced copper glass 
with one in which the copper is fully oxidized. At the same time 
it is worth noting, and is perhaps suggestive, that a chilled and 
colorless gold glass which goes through the stages of very pale red 
to a fine full red on heating in the flame has, after six months’ expo- 
sure to the @-rays of radium, only developed a dusky neutral tint. 
A piece of glass of the same composition, except that there was 
no gold at all in it, has not been affected by the radium. It would 
lead too much into theoretical discussion to consider in what form 
gold, copper, and selenium exist in the respective chilled and color- 
less glasses, and how far they may be looked upon as being in com- 
bination, or merely in so fine a state of division, that they have no 
visible effect on light. The chemical and physical evidence that, 
when they do give color they are in the elementary state seems to 
be fairly conclusive; but this does not necessarily exclude the pos- 
sibility of their being in something very like chemical combination 
in their colorless states. 

Perhaps it is needlessly striving after definiteness to attempt to 
distinguish between. bodies being dispersed in an extremely fine state 
of division, partly at least through chemical attraction for their 
solvent, and being held in a loose kind of chemical combination. 


GLASS—JACKSON. 255 


Some consideration of such a question, however, is helpful in sug- 
gesting experiments, and some instances may be given. One is in 
connection with the composition of a glass to give the full possible 
color with copper. The notion of something like chemical combina- 
tion of the copper leads to the study of the effect of varying the 
relative amounts of the basic and acid ingredients of the glass. More 
of the basic part, such as the alkalies, might be expected to turn the 
copper out of combination, and more of the acid part to keep it in. 
It would be tedious to describe in detail the results of numerous 
trials with glasses, and the point can be equally well illustrated by 
simple experiments with borax beads. Copper oxide mixed with 
about twice its weight of tin oxide can be dissolved in molten borax 
in an oxidizing flame and then reduted in a reducing flame. On 
cooling, the bead is either colorless or “strikes” red, according to 
the concentration of the copper. If colorless, it can, with suitable 
concentration, be made to “strike” by reheating. Now, if to the 
bead which “ struck” red on cooling, more boric anhydride be added, 
and the bead again fused, it will remain colorless on cooling; but 
unless too much boric anhydride has been added it will “strike” 
red on reheating. Addition now of more alkali, in the form of 
sodium carbonate, will restore the property of striking red at once 
on cooling. Similarly it follows that a bead which remains color- 
less on cooling, but “strikes” on reheating, can be prevented from 
giving any color of copper at all by more boric anhydride, and the 
property of “striking” red on reheating can be restored by the fur- 
ther addition of alkali. Of course, in making these various addi- 
tions of alkali and acid to the bead there must be a change in the 
concentration of the copper; but a bead can be got in so sensitive a 
condition that a mere trace of alkali will determine whether a red 
color is developed or not, and a number of experiments on glasses 
and glazes do confirm the notion of chemical action playing a part 
on lines which would be expected from general chemical experience. 

When manganese dioxide is added to a glass as a so-called de- 
colorizing agent, it is intended to be left in an oxidized condition, 
so as to give a violet color which will disguise the green color due to 
iron and produce only a slight darkening of a neutral tint, scarcely 
visible except in thick pieces of the glass. ‘Sometimes the violet tint 
is overdone and can easily be seen, and sometimes so much of 
the manganese dioxide has been reduced that the green due 
to iron is fully visible, the lower oxide of manganese giving 
no color to the glass. In many instances of glasses in which 
one would be inclined from mere inspection to say that all the 
manganese dioxide had been reduced in the furnace, it has been found 
that a strong violet color can be developed by exposure to radium 
or by cathode discharge in vacuum tubes. In parenthesis it may be 


256 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


remarked that potash glasses generally give a good violet and soda 
glasses a brown or a brownish violet. Using small amounts of 
manganese dioxide in batch mixtures, as free as possible from iron, 
it has been found possible to get glasses practically colorless to the 
eye, some of which readily give color on exposure to radium for a 
period during which others develop no color. In making the latter, 
the conditions in the furnace were arranged for complete reduction 
of the manganese dioxide. In making the former, as little deoxida- 
tion as possible was aimed at. In one instance thin rods drawn from 
the melt of one of these, in which very little manganese dioxide was 
used, cooled almost colorless, but “struck” quite a marked violet 
color on reheating. This chilled glass was also very sensitive to 
radium. More urgent work prevented further experiments, but the 
facts so far obtained are mentioned as relevant to the question of the 
chemical condition of coloring agents in glasses, and as an illustra- 
tion of one which would appear to be somewhat of a border line ex- 
ample of the groups (a) and (6), referred to previously. I am 
reluctant to dismiss the matter in this rather summary fashion, but 
the interesting speculations which will occur to many can hardly be 
dealt with shortly. I would, however, recall the well-known pink 
or violet color to be seen in some window glasses which have been 
exposed for years to daylight. In all examples which I have been 
able to examine, manganese has been found to be present, and I can 
imagine that the color has developed in daylight in a manner similar 
to that in which it has been found to be developable in manganese 
glasses by radium, by cathode discharge, or by heat. The color of the 
old window glasses is a little puzzling, if they are soda-lime glasses. 
One would expect them to be browner in tint; but perhaps on in- 
sufficient grounds, since no direct experiments have, so far as I know, 
been made with manganese glasses made with potash and with soda- 
batch mixtures and exposed to sunlight for a long period. It is a 
matter for regret that when the old tinted window glasses were ex- 
amined for manganese the idea of the influence on the color of the 
alkalies present did not occur. [Having regard to the effect of 
manganese greatly to enhance the phosphorescence of potash and 
soda-lime glasses, and to the known coloration of certain potassium 
and sodium compounds under cathode discharge, it is possible that 
the colors in the old window glasses described are not due to man- 
ganese dioxide itself, but that manganese may have rendered the 
alkali compounds in the glasses more sensitive to light of short wave 
lengths. The fact that glasses containing no manganese did not color 
under cathode discharge, etc., is not conclusive, since such glasses 
showed but feeble phosphorescence. The observation, however, that 
of two glasses containing the same amount of manganese, and giving 
equal phosphorescence, the one in which there is evidence of some 


GLASS—JACKSON, Q5'7 


of the manganese being in the higher state of oxidation becomes very 
markedly colored by an amount of exposure to rays which has no 
visible effect on the other glass in which the lower oxide of man- 
ganese only is present, seems at least to point to some special behavior 
of manganese dioxide. ] 

The influence of different alkalies and the remarks already made 
on the effect of varying the relative proportions of bases and acids on 
the copper glasses bring me to a short consideration of the behavior 
of coloring agents which would generally be placed in group (0) 
as existing in glasses in a state more nearly resembling that of true 
solution than that which may be considered to obtain in the more 
colloidal solutions of gold, copper, selenium, and other substances 
such as silver, sulphur, carbon, etc., with which there has been no 
time to deal. I must confine my remarks to but few of group (bd), 
and perhaps nickel and cobalt will be the most suitable to illustrate 
the effect of different alkalies and also that of varying proportions 
of one and the same alkali. 

If three similar and moderately soft glasses be made containing, 
respectively, potash, soda, and lithia as the alkalies present in chemi- 
cally equivalent proportions, and if the same amount of nickel oxide 
be present in each glass, marked difference in the colors is observed. 
The potash glass is a fine deep violet, the soda glass is almost brown, 
with only a hint of purple in the brown, and the lithia glass is a yel- 
Jowish brown, with less strength of color altogether in it than there 
is in the soda glass. Similar differences can be seen in beads made 
from nickel oxide dissolved in the bi-borates of the three alkalies. 
Of these alkalies potash is the strongest and lithia the weakest base. 
The glasses mentioned would not be described as acid glasses, but as 
glasses containing a fair proportion of basic to acid ingredients. 
If highly acid glasses be made with the three alkalies and the same 
proportion of nickel oxide, the lithia glass is only slightly colored 
a brownish yellow, the soda glass is a lighter brown, with no trace 
of purple in it, and the potash glass is rather darker in shade than 
the soda glass, but a definite brown. Again, very similar results 
can be obtained in beads of the borates of the alkalies by varying 
the proportions of acid and alkali, and using the same amount of 
nickel oxide in each set of experiments. With potash as the alkali 
the proportion of boric anhydride and alkali and the concentration of 
nickel oxide can readily be adjusted to show a bead colored brown 
when cold, but becoming a definite violet when heated just below 
a dull red heat. A like change of color has been observed in experi- 
mental glasses made for studying the colors obtainable from nickel. 

With cobalt oxide as the coloring agent, the difference between the 
blue colors of potash and soda soft glasses is not very noticeable; 
but a similar lithia glass is less colored, and there is an appreciable 


258 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


violet tint in the color. If, however, using any one of the three 
alkalies, a highly acid glass containing the same amount of cobalt 
oxide be made, the difference between it and the comparable soft 
glass is very marked. There is much less depth of color altogether. 
What there is is a somewhat violet blue in the case of the potash 
glass, a rather lighter and more violet blue in the soda glass, and a 
still lighter pink violet in the lithia glass. This nearly pink glass 
goes to a weak but quite distinct blue when heated. 

The effect of the alkalies potash and soda on the color of borates 
is not so marked in the case of cobalt as it is in that of nickel. 
Lithia in comparison with them always gives for equivalent pro- 
portions a much more decided violet tint in the blue. The influence 
of the proportion of base to acid, however, is marked, and can be very 
well seen by using any one of the alkalies in varying proportions with 
molten boric anhydride, to which a small amount of cobalt oxide 
(about 0.25 per cent) has been added. [Cobalt oxide dissolves in 
highly heated boric anhydride, but on cooling cobalt borate separates 
out, giving an opaque, very pale blue, glassy mass.| Taking lithium 
carbonate as the alkali and adding only a very small amount (about 
0.25 per cent) the whole of the cobalt remains in solution on cooling, 
and the resulting glass is'seen to be blue while still hot, to change to a 
more and more violet tint on cooling, and to be almost a pink when 
cold. The addition of more of the alkali intensifies the blue color, 
giving greater depth of color, and the mass when cold is a violet 
blue. Similar variations in color can be obtained with equivalent 
quantities of potash and soda, but the effect of these alkalies is 
always to give a more pronounced blue as the amount of alkali is 
increased. Comparing the weakest base, lithia, then, with potash, 
the strongest, and progressively adding each to borate beads con- 
taining cobalt, no amount of lithia, up to the point when it is im- 
possible to keep the bead vitreous, will give as blue and as strongly 
colored a bead as the equivalent, or even less than the equivalent, of 
potash will produce. There is always a more violet tint in the lithia 
bead. 

In conclusion, a brief reference may be made to another coloring 
agent, copper oxide. This oxide is not soluble in boric anhydride 
when a bead of the latter is heated in an oxidizing flame, but by the 
addition of an alkali a clear blue bead is obtained. Should the alkali, 
e. g., potash, be added in very small amount, so as to give a highly 
acid mixture of about the composition, for instance, represented by 
the portions K,0.50B,0,, the coloration due to about 0.25 per cent of 
copper oxide is so faint that the bead is practically colorless, although 
this amount of the oxide is sufficient to give a markedly blue bead 
in potassium bi-borate, K,0.2B,0,. In this case, also, then the color 
becomes more intense as the amount of alkali used is increased. | 


GLASS—-JACKSON. 259 


One is tempted to compare this effect of alkali on the copper oxide 
and boric anhydride mixture with that of water on copper sulphate, 
which, in the anhydrous state, represented by the formula CuSO,, 
is white. The addition of water sufficient to give the composition 
CuSO,.H,O leaves the substance still white; but with more water 
the well-known blue copper sulphate CuSO,5H,O is produced. 
Without going so far as to call this an example of hydrolysis by 
water, it may not be too much to speak of the development of color 
as indicating in CuSO,.5H,0 a greater tendency to the formation of 
blue copper hydroxide than is possible with the smaller mass of 
water in CuSO,.H,0. 

The notion that there is an analogy here with the progressive de- 
velopment of color in glasses and borates with increase of alkali may 
be suggested, but with reservations. Still, the changes from brown 
to violet in the case of nickel, from pink to blue in the case of cobalt, 
and the progressive development of the color of copper, all brought 
about by increasing the proportion of alkali, do seem to point, if 
not to a definite separation out of the oxides of these metals, to some- 
thing like it in the sense that with very little of the alkali present the 
oxides of the metals may be playing a basic part, but are turned out 
by more of the stronger base (the alkali), and may be either freed 
or caused to play the part of acids to the alkali. The study of a wide 
range of coloring agents in glasses has furnished some facts which, 
from a chemical point of view, lend plausibility to the notion and 
others which seem to need a great deal of interpretation to support it. 
As an idea it has been useful in suggesting methods of producing 
as well as preventing color in glasses. More facts, however, must be 
accumulated for a fuller and more correct shaping, in its physical 
and chemical aspects, of one of the many interesting problems con- 
nected with glass. 


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* 


THE FUNCTIONS AND IDEALS OF A NATIONAL GEO- 
LOGICAL SURVEY. 


By F. L. Ransome, United States Geological Survey. 


INTRODUCTION. 


During the period of unrest and uncertainty through which we are 
still painfully groping the many distracting calls upon my time 
and thoughts have made performance of the duty to prepare a presi- 
dential address particularly difficult. In view of these circum- 
stances I may perhaps hope for your indulgence if my effort shows 
some lack of thoroughness in its preparation and falls short of the 
high standard set by some of my distinguished predecessors. The 
subject of a presidential address to the academy should, I think, be 
of wider interest and more general character than would ordinarily 
be an account of work in the speaker’s particular branch of science, 
and this condition I have attempted to fulfill. Although what fol- 
lows will deal especially with national geological surveys, much of 
it will apply in principle to any scientific bureau conducted as a 
Government organization. 


REASONS FOR THE EXISTENCH OF A NATIONAL GHOLOGICAL 
SURVEY. 


In the beginning it may be well to review briefly the reasons for 
the existence of a national geological survey. Why should the Gov- 
ernment undertake work in geology while it leaves investigations in 
other sciences to private initiation and enterprise? The reasons that 
may be adduced will differ with the point of view. The geologist 
will suggest that whereas some sciences, such as chemistry, physics, 
or astronomy, may be pursued successfully with stationary and per- 
manent equipment at any one of a number of localities, geology is 
regional in its scope and is primarily a field science as contrasted 
with a laboratory science. Geology, it is true, must avail itself of 
laboratory resources and methods, but the geologist can not have 
the greater part of his material brought to him; he must himself 
seek it afield. Thus it comes about that comprehensive geologic 

1 Address of the retiring president of the academy delivered Jan, 13, 1920. Reprinted 


by permission from the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 10, No. 4, 
Feb. 19, 1920. 


12573°—21——-18 261 


262 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


problems require for their solution the equipment of more or less 
expensive expeditions or travel over large areas. Such projects, 
as a rule, can not be undertaken by individual geologists or by local 
organizations, The preparation of a geologic map of a whole coun- 
try, with its explanatory text, generally recognized as essential fun- 
damental work, is an undertaking that requires consistent effort by 
a central organization extending over a period of years. Such a 
niap is not likely to result from the patching together of the results 
of uncoordinated local effort. From a broadly utilitarian point of 
view the intelligent layman as well as the geologist must recognize 
that the development of a country’s natural resources in such a 
manner as to secure their maximum use for the greatest number of 
its citizens necessarily depends upon reliable information concern- 
ing the character, location, and extent of these resources and that 
this information should be available before they are exploited by 
those who have eyes only for their own immediate profit or before 
they pass entirely into private contro] or are exhausted. Such infor- 
mation can best be obtained and published by an impartial national 
organization responsible for its results to the people as a whole. 
Such a layman will recognize also that knowledge of the mineral 
resources of a country must rest upon a geological foundation. As 
Prof. J. C. Branner has recently said in his “ Outlines of the Geology 
of Brazil”: 


After a life spent chiefly in active geologic work and in the direction of such 
work I should be remiss in my duty to Brazil if I did not use this occasion to 
urge on Brazilian statesmen the serious necessity for the active encouragement 
and support of scientific geologic work on the part of the National and State 
Governments. Knowledge must precede the application of knowledge in geology 
as well as in other matters; and unless the development of the country’s 
mineral resources be based on and proceed from a Scientific knowledge of its 
geology there must inevitably be waste of effort, loss of money, and the delay 
of national progress inseparable from haphazard methods.’ 

Finally the citizen of narrower vision will regard as sufficient 
justification for a national geological survey the fact that he himself 
can turn to it for information and assistance in the development of 
particular mineral deposits to his own material advantage. 

As a matter of fact most of the progressive countries of the world 
maintain geological surveys, so that the desirability of such an or- 
ganization appears to. have been generally recognized, whatever may 
have been the particular reason or reasons that set in motion the 
machinery of organization in each country. 

Recognizing the fact that most of the principal countries have 
established geological surveys and granting that there are -good 
reasons for considering the maintenance of such an organization 


1J. C. Branner, Outlines of the geology of Brazil, Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 30;194. 1919. 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—RANSOME. 963 


as a proper governmental function, we may next inquire, What 
should be the ideals and duties of a geological survey? How may 
these ideals be realized and these duties performed ? 


GENERAL LEGAL FUNCTIONS. 


The organic act of the United States Geological Survey specifies 
indirectly and in general terms the field that the organization should 
occupy. It states, with reference to the director, “this officer shall 
have the direction of the Geological Survey and the classification of 
the public lands and examination of the geological structure, mineral 
resources, and products of the national domain.” 

Doubtless the laws or decrees under which other national geologi- 
cal surveys have been established also prescribe to some extent their 
duties. Such legal authorization, however, is as a rule so general as 
to leave room for considerable latitude in its interpretation. I pro- 
pose first to discuss the functions of a national geological survey 
without reference to legal prescription or definition and afterwards 
to consider the extent to which some of the actual conditions inter- 
fere with the realization of these ideals. 


USEFULNESS IN SCIENCE. 


It has been the fashion in some quarters of late to emphasize use- 
fulness as the chief criterion by which to judge the value of scien- 
tific research under Government auspices. It has been intimated 
that this or that scientific bureau of the Government must do “ use- 
ful” work if it is to justify its existence and its expenditure of public 
funds. The statement is usually made with an air of finality, as if 
a troublesome question had been once for all disposed of and the 
path of the future made plain. As a matter of fact, however, when 
it is said that science must be useful in order to receive Government 
support we have really made very little advance. Probably the 
most idealistic scientific man will admit that ultimate usefulness is 
. the justification for scientific research, although that end may not 
enter into his thoughts when he undertakes any particular investi- 
gation with the hope of increasing human knowledge. Men will 
differ very widely, however, as to what is meant by usefulness in 
science. It is well known to all scientific men, although not yet as 
widely recognized by others as it should be, that the utility of re- 
search is not generally predictable. For example, the investigations 
on electricity for hundreds of years preceding the middle of the 
nineteenth century had, so far as could be seen, no practical bear- 
ing. The experiments of Volta, of Galvani, and even those of our 
own Franklin, outside of his invention of the lightning rod, were 
not conducted with any thought of utility and were probably looked 


264 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 1919. 


upon by the people of the time as diversions of the learned, not 
likely to have much effect upon human life and progress. How 
erroneous such a view was it is unnecessary to point out to a gen- 
eration accustomed to daily use of the trolley car, telegraph, tele- 
phone, and electric light. Not only is the utility of science not 
always predictable, but it is of very different kinds. That astronomy 
has certain practical applications in navigation and geodesy is well 
known; but important as these applications are they seem insig- 
nificant in comparison with the debt that we owe to this science for 
enlarging our intellectual horizon. This, too, is usefulness which I 
venture to think is of a truer and higher sort than much that passes 
current for utility. The classic researches of Pasteur on the tartaric 
acids, on fermentation, on the anthrax bacillus, on the silkworm dis- 
ease, and on rabies were so-called applied science of the very highest 
type, indistinguishable in the spirit and method of their pursuit from 
investigations in pure science. They were not merely the application 
of knowledge to industry, but were extraordinarily fruitful scientific 
investigations undertaken to solve particular industrial and humani- 
tarian problems. They are especially interesting in the present con- 
nection as probably the most conspicuous example in the history of 
research of the merging of pure and applied science. Pasteur was 
doubly fortunate in that he not only enormously enlarged human 
knowledge but was able to see, at least in part, the practical applica- 
tion of his discoveries to the benefit of humanity. The value of his 
results measurable in dollars is enormous, yet this is not their only 
value. Prof. Arthur Schuster, in a recent address, remarks: 

The researches of Pasteur, Lister, and their followers, are triumphs of science 
applied directly to the benefit of mankind; but I fancy that their hold on our 
imagination is mainly due to the new vista opened out on the nature of disease, 
the marvelous workings of the lower forms of life, and the almost human at- 
tributes of blood corpuscles, which have been disclosed. 

The effect on a community is only the summation of the effect on individuals, 
and if we judge by individuals there can be little doubt that, except under the 
stress of abnormal circumstances, pure knowledge has as great a hold upon the 
public mind as the story of its applications. 

Quite independently of any recognized usefulness, investigations 
that yield results that are of interest to the public are willingly sup- 
ported by the people, and this fact is significant in connection with 
what I shall have to say later on the function of education. As 
illustrations of this truth may be cited our Government Bureau of 
Ethnology and our large public museums. Probably few who read 
the admirable Government reports on the aboriginal antiquities of 
our country and on the arts and customs of the Indian tribes could 
point out any particular usefulness in these studies; but they have 
to do with human life, and their popular appeal is undeniable. The 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—RANSOME. 265 


average visitor to a museum probably has little conception of what 
to a scientific man is the real purpose of such an institution. He 
gazes with interest at the contents of the display cases without realiz- 
ing that by far the greater part of the material upon which the 
scientific staff is working or upon which investigators will work in 
future is hidden away in drawers and packing cases. The principal 
recognizable result, so far as he is concerned, is that he is interested 
in what he sees and feels that he is being pleasantly instructed. 

In other words, it is as important for man to have his imagination 
quickened as to have his bodily needs supplied, and in ministering 
to either requirement science is entitled to be called useful or valuable. 

It may be remarked in passing that Pasteur’s work had this in 
common with pure science, or science pursued with the single aim 
of adding to human knowledge, in that Pasteur himself could not 
foresee all of the applications that would in future be made of his 
discoveries. 

Enough, I think, has been said to show that the term “ usefulness ” 
as applied to science covers a wide range and that when employed by 
people of imagination and liberal culture it may include much more 
than when used by those whose only standard of value is the unstable 
dollar. 

FUNCTIONS UNDER AN IDEAL AUTOCRACY. 


Tf government were in the hands of a wise and benevolent autocracy 
a national geological survey would be so conducted as to be useful to 
the people whose taxes go toward its support, but it would probably 
be useful in the broader sense that I have outlined. It would give 
the people not perhaps what they thought’ they wanted but what, in 
the wisdom of their government, seemed best for them. I believe 
that a survey so directed would aim to encourage and promote the 
study of geology by undertaking those general problems and regional 
investigations that would be likely to remain untouched if left to 
private enterprise. It would lay the foundation for the most eco- 
nomical and efficient development of the natural resources of the 
country by ascertaining and making known the location, character, 
and extent of the national mineral resources. As an aid to the 
intelligent utilization of these resources and to the discovery of de- 
posits additional to those already known, it would properly occupy 
itself with problems concerning the origin and mode of formation 
of mineral deposits. Last, but not least, it would accept the responsi- 
bility, not only for making known the material resources of the 
country but for contributing to the moral and intellectual life of the 
Nation and of the world by seeing to it that the country’s resources 
in opportunities for progress in the science of geology are fully 
utilized. I may illustrate my meaning by examples taken from the 


266 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


publications of the United States Geological Survey. In my opinion, 
such work as Dutton’s Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon, Gil- 
bert’s Lake Bonneville, and the investigations of Marsh, Cope, and 
their successors on the wonderful series of reptile, bird, and mammal 
remains found in the Cretaceous and Tertiary strata of the West are 
fully as adequate and appropriate a return for the expenditure of 
public funds as a report describing the occurrence of a coal bed and 
giving the quantity of coal available in a given field. Many years 
ago when the United States Geological Survey was under heavy fire 
in Congress one Member of that body in some unexplained way 
learned that Professor Marsh had discovered and had described in 
a Government publication a wonderful fossil bird with teeth—a great 
diver up to 6 feet in length. He held this up to ridicule as a glaring 
example of the waste of public funds in useless scientific work, quite 
unaware of the light that this and similar discoveries threw upon the 
interesting history of the development of birds from reptiles and 
upon evolution, or of the intellectual value of such a contribution to 
knowledge. The representative of a people educated in the value of 
geologic science would, by such an exhibition of ignorance, discredit 
himself in the eyes of his constituents. 


FUNCTIONS IN A DEMOCRACY. 


Our Government, however, is not an all-wise benevolent autocracy, 
but is democratic in plan and intent and suffers from certain well- 
known disadvantages from which no democracy has yet been free. 
The wishes of the politically active majority control, and these wishes 
may or may not coincide with those of the wisest and most en- 
lightened of the citizens. The funds for Government work in science 
must be granted by Congress, and the vote of each Congressman is 
determined by the real or supposed desires of his constituents. A 
national scientific bureau, if it is to survive, must have popular sup- 
port, and to obtain and hold such support it must do at least some 
work that the majority of the people can understand or can recognize 
as being worth the doing. Here evidently compromise with scientific 
ideals is necessary. Something must be sacrified in order that some- 
thing can be done.. Such concessions and compromises are inseparable 
from democratic government, and the scientific man of high ideals 
who is unable to recognize this fact will inevitably fail as a director 
of the scientific work of a government bureau. Such a man is likely 
to insist that no concessions are necessary and that the public will 
support science which is not interesting to it or from which it can 
see no immediately resulting material benefit. One very eminent 
geologist with whom I was once conversing held this view. He said 
that he had always found that he could go before a legislative body 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—-RANSOME. 267 


and secure appropriations for scientific research by being absolutely 
frank and making no attempt to show that the results of the work 
would be what the average man would term “useful” within the 
immediate future. His confidence was possibly well grounded, but I 
am inclined to think that the success gained by him was rather a 
tribute to his earnest eloquence and winning personality than a proof 
that the people are yet ready to contribute their taxes to the support 
of investigations that, so far as they can see, are neither useful nor 
interesting. | 
| CHARACTER OF COMPROMISES. 


Lest it be supposed that I am advocating the surrender of the high 
ideals of science to the political business of vote getting, I hasten to 
point out that surrender and compromise are not synonymous and 
may be very far apart. Some compromise there must be, but in my 
opinion the most delicate and critical problem in the direction of a 
national scientific bureau is to determine the nature and extent of 
this compromise so as to obtain the largest and steadiest support of 
real research with the least sacrifice. Complete surrender to popu- 
larity may mean large initial support but is sure to be followed by 
deterioration in the spirit of the organization and in the quality of 
its work, by loss of scientific prestige, and by final bankruptcy even 
in that popular favor which had been so sedulously cultivated. 

The extent to which concessions must be made will depend largely, 
of course, upon the general level of intelligence of the people and 
upon the degree to which the less intelligent are influenced through 
the press and other channels by those who are able to appreciate the 
value of science... The more enlightened the people the more general 
and permanent will be their support of science. 


IMPORTANCE OF POPULAR. EDUCATION IN GEOLOGY. 


This leads us to the consideration of what I believe to be one of the 
most important of the functions of a government scientific bureau, 
namely, education. Of all forms of concession, if needed it is really 
a concession, this is the least. objectionable and most fruitful. Its 
results are constructive and cumulative. It is not, like other conces- 
sions to popularity, corrosive of the scientific spirit of an organiza- 
tion, and in so far as it calls for clear thinking and attractive presen- 
tation by those who put it into practice, as well as the ability to grasp 
and expound essentials, its educational effect may be subjective no 
less than objective. Whatever may be true of those engaged in other 
sciences, geologists in this country have shown little interest. in popu- 
larizing their ‘science or in encouraging its pursuit by amateurs. 
Such attempts as have been made have often been inept and unsuc- 


268 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


cessful, and other professional geologists have looked with more or 
less disdain upon those of their fellows who have tried to expound 
their science to the people. They have felt that men with unusual 
ability for research should devote all of their energy to the work of 
enlarging the confines of knowledge rather than to that of disseminat- 
ing and popularizing what is known to the few. There is undoubt- 
edly much to be said for this view, and when applied to certain ex- 
ceptional men. it -is strictly correct. When, however, we think of 
Darwin and compare the magnitude of his achievements with the 
pains that he took to make his conclusions comprehensible by the 
multitude, we are inclined to feel that only by extraordinary ability 
and performance in certain directions can an investigator in natural 
science be altogether absolved from the duty of making himself in- 
telligible to more than a few specialists in his own line. There are un- 
doubtedly many scientific men, thoroughly and earnestly convinced 
of the importance of their researches, who would in the long run be 
doing more for humanity and perhaps for themselves if they would 
spare some time to tell us as clearly and attractively as possible what 
it is that they are doing. While I believe this to be true of scientific 
men in general, it is particularly true of those who are officially serv- 
ants of a democracy. A democratic government might almost be 
characterized as a government by compromise, and this is one of the 
major compromises that confronts scientific men in the service of 
such a government. The conclusion that a very important function 
of a national geological survey is the education of the people in 
geology and the increasing of popular interest in that science appears 
to be unavoidable, yet it is surprising how little this function has 
been recognized and exercised... The results of such education are 
a direct and permanent gain to science, whereas, on the other hand, 
the consequence of prostituting the opportunities for scientific work 
to satisfy this and that popular demand for so-called practical results 
in any problem that happens to be momentarily in the public eye is a 
kind of charlatanry that is utterly demoralizing to those who prac- 
tice it and that must ultimately bring even popular discredit on 
science. A bureau that follows such a policy can neither hold within 
it nor attract to its service men animated by the true spirit of 
investigation. 
METHODS OF EDUCATION. 


It is not practicable in the present address to discuss in detail 
the many possibilities of educational work in geology. Only a 
few general suggestions can be offered. 

In the first place the importance of education by a national 
geological survey should be frankly recognized, and the idea that 
it is beneath the dignity of a geologist to participate in this func- 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—RANSOME, 269 


tion should be discountenanced. A geological survey should in- 
clude on its staff one or more men of high ability who are especially 
gifted in interesting the public in the purposes, methods, and re- 
sults of geologic work—men of imagination who can see the romance 
of science; men of broad sympathy who know the hearts and minds 
of their countrymen from one border to the other; men imbued 
with the truthful spirit of science; and, finally, men skilled in the 
art of illuminating the cold, impersonal results of science with a 
warm glow of human interest. 

It should be the duty of these men to see that so far as possible 
all the results of geologic work are interpreted to the people so that 
every citizen can benefit to the limit of his individual capacity. 
Magazines, the daily papers, moving pictures, and all other possible 
means of publication should be utilized. There should be close 
contact with educators, and special pains should be taken to pre- 
pare material for use in schools and colleges. Carefully planned 
courses at university summer schools and elsewhere might be given 
by members of the educational or publicity staff or by certain 
selected geologists from the field staff. 

Geologists in preparing papers and reports should consider with 
particular care the question, Who may be reached by this? Some 
scientific results can not be popularized, and papers on these may 
be written in the concise, accurate language of science. Others, 
however, may, by taking sufficient care and trouble, be made interest- 
ing to more than a small circle of scientific colleagues. Every effort 
should be made to enlarge this circle by simple and attractive pres- 
entation. I am inclined to think that in some cases a geologist might 
issue separately or as a part of his complete report an abstract or 
résumé in which all effort is concentrated on an endeavor to be 
interesting and clear to as many people as possible. If this were 
done, I am sure that the writer would be in a position to appraise 
more truly the value of his complete report and might proceed to 
rewrite some portions of it and to omit others, without loss to 
science and at a saving in paper and printing. 


RELATIONS WITH UNIVERSITIES. 


In connection with the subject of education attention may be 
called to the fundamental importance of establishing and main- 
taining close and cordial relations between a government scientific 
bureau and the universities. The advantages of such relations are 
so many that it is difficult to enumerate them all, but it may be 
pointed out that any plan of popular education in science will be 
seriously crippled if the professional teachers, whose influence in 
molding the thoughts and determining the careers of the young 


270 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


men and women of the country is so great, are out of sympathy 
with the government organization that is attempting to quicken the 
interest of the people in a particular branch of science. Moreover, 
itis vital to such an organization that it should attract to its service 
young men of exceptional ability in science. This it is not likely 
to do if professors of geology feel that they must conscientiously 
advise their most promising graduates to avoid government service. 
Doubtless some teachers of geology in the universities fail to realize 
the necessity for some of the compromises inevitable in a govern- 
ment bureau or in their impatience at some of the stupidities of 
bureaucratic procedure are inclined to place the blame for these 
where it does not belong; a few may cherish personal grievances. 
No class of men is without its unreasonable members, and neither 
rectitude nor tact can prevent occasional clashes; but if a national 
geological survey can not command the respect and hearty support 
of most of the geological faculties of the universities the con- 
sequences to the progress of geology must be deplorable. Any ap- 
proach to such a condition demands immediate action, with less 
emphasis on the question, “ Who is to blame? ” for in all probability 
there may be some fault on both sides, than on “ What can be done 
to restore relations of mutual regard and helpfulness?” 


THE AMATEUR IN GHOLOGY. 


In the present age of specialization we are apt to forget how much 
geology owes to amateurs, particularly in Britain and France. Sir 
Archibald Geikie in the concluding chapter of his Founders of 
Geology dwells particularly on this debt. He says: 


In the account which has been presented in this yolume of the work of some 
of the more notable men who have created the science of geology, one or two 
leading facts stand out prominently before us. In the first place, even in the 
list of selected names which we have considered, it is remarkable how varied 
have been the ordinary avocations * of these pioneers. The majority have been 
men engaged in other pursuits, who have devoted their leisure to the cultivation 
of geological studies. Steno, Guettard, Pallas, Ftichsel, and many more were 
physicians, either led by their medical training to interest themselves in natural 
history, or not seldom, even from boyhood, so fond of natural history as to 
choose medicine as their profession because of its affinities with that branch 
of science. Giraud-Soulavie and Michell were clergymen. Murchison was a 
retired soldier. Alexandre Brongniart was at first engaged in superintending 
the porcelain manufactory of Sévres.. Demarest was a hard-worked civil serv- 
ant who snatched his intervals for geology from the toils of incessant official 
occupation. William Smith found time for his researches in the midst of all 
the cares and anxieties of his profession as an engineer and surveyor. Hutton, 
Hall, DeSaussure., Von Buch, Lyell, and Darwin were men of means, who. 
scorned a life of slothful ease, and dedicated themselves and their fortunes to 
the study of the history of the earth. Playfair and Cuvier were both teachers 


3“ Vocations ’’ would seem to be the right word here. F, L. R. 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY——-RANSOME. 271 


of other branches of science, irresistibly drawn into the sphere of geological 
inquiry and speculation. Of the whole gallery of worthies that have passed 
before us, a comparatively small proportion could be classed as in the strictest 
sense professional geologists, such as Werner, Sedgwick, and Logan. Were we 
to step outside of that gallery, and include the names of all who have helped 
to lay the foundations of the science, we should find the proportion to be still 
less. 

From the beginning of its career, geology has owed its foundation and its ad- 
vance to no select and privileged class. It has been open to all who cared to 
undergo the trials which its successful prosecution demands. And what it has 
been in the past, it remains to-day. No branch of natural knowledge lies more 
invitingly open to every student who, loving the fresh face of Nature, is willing 
to train his faculty of observation in the field and to discipline his mind by 
the patient correlation of facts and the fearless dissection of theories. To 
such an inquirer no limit can be set. He may be enabled to rebuild parts of the 
temple of science, or to add new towers and pinnacles to its superstructure. But 
even if he should never venture into such ambitious undertakings, he will gain, 
in the cultivation of geological pursuits, a solace and enjoyment amid the cares 
of life, which will become to him a source of the purest joy. 

In this country at the present time, as Mr. David White, in an as 
yet unpublished address, has, I believe, pointed out, the amateur geolo- 
gist is rare, owing partly to the way in which the subject is taught, 
and few indeed are the contributions made to the science by those 
who follow geology as an avocation or hobby. This is unfortunate, 
and an improvement of this condition should be one of the major 
objects of the educational program of a national geological survey. 
The science lends itself particularly to pursuit as a recreation by 
men of trained intellect who must find in the open air some relief 
from sedentary professions. In a country still so new as ours geologic 
problems lie on every hand, and many of them can be solved wholly 
or in part without elaborate apparatus or laboratory facilities. The 
standards for the professional geologist should be high, but there is 
no necessity that maintenance of such standards should be accom- 
panied by a patronizing or supercilious attitude toward the work 
of the amateur. Rather, let the professional geologist cultivate 
sympathy, tolerance, and generosity toward all who are earnestly 
seeking for the truth; let him help by encouragement instead of 
deterring by disdain. There is no better evidence of a wide interest 
in geology than the existence of numerous amateur workers, and it 
is decidedly to the advantage of the professional geologist and of 
the science to encourage in every way possible the efforts of such 
workers and to increase their number. 


KINDS OF WORK TO BE UNDERTAKEN BY A NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL 
SURVEY. 


There has been considerable difference of opinion as to the kinds 
of work that should be undertaken by a national geological survey. 


272 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Shall its field be confined to what may be included under geology or 
shall it embrace other activities, such as topographic mapping, hy- 
drography and hydraulic engineering, mining engineering, the classi- 
fication of public lands, the collection and publication of statistics 
of mineral production, and the mechanical arts of publication such as 
printing and engraving. These various lines of activity may be 
divided into two main classes—those that are more or less contribu- 
tory to or subordinate to the publication of geologic results, and those 
that have little, if any, connection with geology. 

I am one of those who believe that a geological survey should be 
essentially what its name implies—that it should confine its activity 
to the science of geology. This opinion is held, however, in full 
realization of the fact that here, as elsewhere, some compromise may 
be necessary. This may be dictated by law or may be determined by 
policy. 7 

The organic law of the United States Geological Survey, for ex- 
ample, includes among the duties of the organization “ the classifica- 
tion of the public lands.” ‘There may be some difference of opinion 
as to what the framers of the law meant by this provision, but it is 
at least a reasonable conclusion that they intended the sort of classi- 
fication adopted by the General Land Office. If so, the determina- 
tion of the so-called “ mineral” or “nonmineral” character of public 
lands is undoubtedly a proper function of the United States Geolog- 
ical Survey, although it is one that was neglected by that survey for 
many years and has not yet received the recognition of a specific ap- 
propriation, except recently in connection with the stock-raising and 
enlarged-homestead acts. 


TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING. 


Inasmuch as the preparation of a topographic map is a necessary 
preliminary to accurate and detailed geologic mapping, a geological 
survey is vitally interested in seeing that satisfactory maps are 
available as needed. Whether a particular geological survey should 
itself undertake this mapping depends upon circumstances. If an- 
other Government organization is equipped for doing this work and 
can provide maps of the requisite quality when needed, it would ap- 
pear that the Geological Bureau should leave this work to the other 
organization, particularly as the maps required to keep abreast of 
geologic requirements are likely to constitute only a part of the work 
of the topographic bureau. There are certain decided advantages, 
however, in having the topographic work done by the Geological 
Survey, and these advantages must be weighed against other consid- 
erations. With the topographic and geologic work under a single 
control, the geologist is more likely to be assured of getting the kind 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY——-RANSOME. 93 


of map he desires at the time it is needed. Cooperation between 
geologists and topographers is apt to be both closer and more flexible 
than it would be if the two staffs were in separate organizations. 
Finally, the field work in topography and geology is in some respects 
alike and is carried out by similar methods and equipment. Occa- 
sionally the two kinds of work can be combined and carried on simul- 
taneously. 

The general question—whether a national geological survey shall 
do its own topographic mapping—appears to be one that can not be 
answered once for all but must be determined for each country. In 
an old country, where accurate and detailed maps have long been 
made by military and other organizations, a geological survey may 
be under no necessity of providing its own topographic base maps. 
In a new country, where exploration is still in progress, the Geologi- 
cal Survey may have to make its own topographic surveys. The main 
point, as I see it, is that the Geological Survey must have maps of 
the standard required by it with the least possible delay but should 
not undertake to make them itself if other organizations that can 
and. will provide the maps needed are already in the field. 


STATISTICS OF MINERAL PRODUCTION. 


We have seen that there is at least a very close connection between 
topographic and geologic mapping and that in this connection may 
lie a sufficient reason why both kinds of work should be undertaken 
by the same organization. Is there as good a reason why the study 
of geology and the collection of statistics of mineral production 

should be united ? 
When shortly after the organization of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey the collection of statistics was begun, those geologists 
who were most influential in urging that the survey should under- 
take statistical work adduced as the principal reason that the people 
desired such figures, and if the Geological Survey did the work it 
would be able to secure larger appropriations than if the task were 
left for others. It does not appear to have been thought at that time 
that geologists were the only men who could satisfactorily do statis- 
tical work or that it was necessary to impose this task on them. 
Subsequently, however, the work was apportioned among the geolo- 
gists. The reasons for this step appear to have been, first, that the 
results of having the statistical reports prepared under contract by 
specialists who were not on the regular staff of the organization had 
proved unsatisfactory; second, that by apportioning the work among 
the geologists already on the staff not only would the apparent cost 
in money be less than under the former arrangement, but it would, 
in a bookkeeping sense, be very much cheaper than taking on new men 


274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


for this particular work; finally, it was argued that geologists could 
apply their knowledge of the field relations of ore deposits to improve 
the character of statistical reports and would themselves benefit by 
additional opportunities to visit and examine many deposits that 
they might not otherwise see. : 

It is undoubtedly true that the statistical reports of the United 
States Geological Survey have greatly improved in accuracy, 
fullness, and general interest since this plan was adopted. It is 
also true that some geologists have turned their opportunities as 
statistical experts to good account both in enlarging their experience 
and by gathering material that has been worked into geological 
papers. Nevertheless, the policy has, in my opinion, been a mistake 
both economically and scientifically. It has insidiously filched the 
time of highly trained men who have shown originality and capacity 
for geologic research and has tied these men down to comparatively 
easy and more or less routine tasks. Some geologists who were once 
scientifically productive no longer contribute anything to geological 
literature but are immersed in work that men without their special 
geological training could do as well. To a certain extent the policy 
is destructive of scientific morale. A young geologist sees that a man 
who publishes, annually or at shorter periods, reports on the sta- 
tistics of production of some metal becomes widely known to all 
interested in that metal and is considered by them as the United 
States Geological Survey’s principal expert on that metal. This 
easily won recognition, with all that it implies or seems to imply in 
the way of promotion and of industrial opportunity, must constitute 
a real temptation so long as a scientific man is expected to contribute 
his own enthusiastic devotion to science as part payment of his 
salary. The incidental geological opportunities offered by statistical 
work are found chiefly in connection with a few of the minor min- 
eral resources, rather than with such industrially dominant com- 
modities as petroleum, iron, or copper, and these opportunities for 
the individual geologist are soon exhausted and are likely to be pur- 
chased at a price far out of proportion to their value. The suppo- 
sition that geological training is essential for good statistical work 
in mineral products is a fallacy, and no man who shows promise of 
making real contributions to geologic science should be placed in 
such circumstances that he is virtually forced to worship an idol 
whose head may be of gold and precious stones but whose feet are as- 
suredly of clay. Iam emphatically of the opinion that the collection 
of mineral statistics is not logically a function of a national geo- 
logical survey. If, however, such a survey is committed to this task 
by law, by the lack of any other organization to do the work, or by 
well-considered reasons of policy, then it is even more certain that 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—-RANSOME. 975 


the duty should not devolve upon geologists at the expense of their 
own science but should be cared for by a special staff. Some coopera- 
tion between the statistical staff and the geologic staff may be advis- 
able, but the extent of this cooperation should be determined by 
executives who are fully alive to the necessity of safeguarding geol- 
ogy against encroachments by statistical work. 


WATER RESOURCES. 


Studies concerned with the occurrence of underground water are 
of course as much geological as those concerned with the occur- 
rence of petroleum. Investigations of surface waters, however, in- 
cluding stream gauging and the study of water power, come within 
the field of engineering and have so little connection with geology 
that it is difficult to see any logical ground for their inclusion within 
the group of activities belonging properly to a geological survey. 
In an ideal apportionment of fields of endeavor among the scientific 
and technical bureaus of a government, stream gauging and estima- 
tion of water power would scarcely fall to the national geological 
survey. As it happens, the United States Geological Survey does 
perform these functions, and I am not prepared to say that there 
is not ample legal and practical justification for this adventitious 
growth on a geological bureau. There has been little or no tendency 
to draft geologists into hydraulic engineering, and consequently the 
principal objection urged against the inclusion of statistical work 
within the sphere of a geological survey does not here apply. Ap- 
parently the only practical disadvantages are the introduction of 
additional complexity into a primarily scientific organization and the 
consequent danger of the partial submergence of principal and pri- 
mary functions by those of adventitious character. 

It should be pointed out in this connection that certain studies 
of surface waters, especially those that are concerned with the char- 
acter and quantity of material carried in suspension and in solu- 
tion in river waters, have much geological importance. Such studies 
supply data for estimating the rate of erosion and sedimentation. 
They are to be regarded, however, rather as an illustration of the 
way in which geology overlaps other branches of science and utilizes 
their results than as reason for considering hydraulic engineering as 
normally a function of a geological survey. 


FOREIGN MINERAL RESOURCES. 


One of the results of the war was to suggest the advantage to 
the citizens and Government of the United. States of a central source 
of information concerning the mineral resources of foreign coun- 
tries. The United States Geological Survey undertook to gather 


276 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


this information, primarily for the specific purpose of supplying 
data to the American representatives at the peace conference. As 
the Director of the Survey states in his fortieth annual report: 

Two general purposes were served—first that of obtaining a clear under- 
standing of the relations between our own war needs and the foreign sources 
of supply from which these needs must or could be met; second, that of ob- 
taining an understanding of the bearing of mineral resources upon the origin 
and conduct of the war and upon the political and commercial readjustments 
that would follow the end of hostilities. 

This work, of a kind that so far as known has not been previously 
undertaken by any national geological survey, has been continued 
with the view that it is important for those who direct American in- 
dustries to possess as much information as possible concerning those 
foreign mineral resources upon which they can draw or against 
which they must compete. The results aimed at are directly practi- 
cal and are largely obtained by compilation of available published 
and unpublished material, as it is manifestly impossible to make 
direct detailed investigations of the mineral resources of all foreign 
countries. Nevertheless the work appears to fall appropriately 
within the field of a geological bureau, and if it can be made to 
furnish the opportunity, hitherto lacking, for geologists in the Gov- 
ernment service to make first-hand comparison between our own 
mineral deposits and those of other lands the experiment will prob- 
ably bear scientific fruit. 


CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. 


Mineralogy and paleontology are so closely related to geology that 
there can be no question of the propriety of including the pursuit 
of these sciences within the scope of a geological survey. The appli- 
cation of chemistry and physics to geological problems admits of 
more discussion. Chemical work, however, as carried on in connec- 
tion with geological investigations is of such special character and 
must be conducted in such intimate contact with geological data as 
to make it almost certain that better results can be obtained with a 
special staff and equipment than would be possible were the routine 
and investigative work in geological chemistry turned over to some 
central bureau of chemistry. The same argument is believed to be 
applicable also to physics. Research in geophysics was at one time 
a recognized function of the United States Geological Survey, but 
since the founding of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie In- 
stitution of Washington this field has been left almost entirely to 
that splendid organization, which is unhampered by some of the 
unfortunate restrictions of a Government bureau. Under these par- 
ticular and unusual conditions this course may have been wise, 


NATIONAL’ GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—RANSOME. 977 


although it does not negative the conclusion that, in general, inves- 
tigation in geophysics are logically and properly a function of a 
national geological survey. 


SOILS. 


The study of soils, with reference to origin, composition, and 
classification, is unquestionably a branch of geology, but the geolo- 
gist, with tradition behind him, generally looks upon soil as a 
nuisance, and geological surveys have reflected his attitude. In the 
United States the classification and mapping of soil types has for 
some years been in progress by the Department of Agriculture. 
While quite devoid of any enthusiasm for engaging in soil mapping, 
I wish to point out merely that this work, if its results justify its 
performance by the Government and if the classification adopted is 
based on chemical, physical, and mineralogical character, rather than 
on crop adaptability, is properly a function of the national geologi- 
cal survey. 


SEISMOLOGY. 


Another subject that is comparatively neglected by national geo- 
logical surveys is seismology. It can scarcely be asserted that earth- 
quakes have no economic bearing, and conspicuous or destructive 
examples usually receive some official attention—after the event. 
The comparative neglect of systematic study of earthquakes is prob- 
ably due to a number of causes. One of these is that few geologists 
specialize in selsmology—a science in which little progress can be 
made unless the investigator possesses unusual qualifications in 
mathematics and physics. Another reason, probably, is that to most 
men the difficulties in the way of gaining real knowledge of the 
causes of earthquakes, and especially of predicting with any cer- 
tainty the time, place, intensity, and effects of earthquakes appear 
rather appalling. Finally, earthquake prediction, or even the recog- 
nition of the possibility of future earthquakes in a particular part of 
the country, is likely to have consequences decidedly unpleasant to 
those responsible for the prediction. Experience in California has 
shown that a community still staggering from a violent shaking may 
insist with some acerbity that nothing of any consequence has hap- 
pened and that it never felt better in its life. 

Notwithstanding these difficulties, I believe that a national geo- 
logical survey, in a country where sericus earthquakes have taken 
place and may occur again, should consider the collection and inter- 
pretation of seismological data as part of its: duty. Such work is 
regional in scope and can not be carried far by local initiative and 
by individual investigators on their own resources. In spite of diffi- 

1255 21-4 


278 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


culties, I believe that it is within the range of possibility that some 
day we shall be able to predict earthquakes wae sufficient: reliability 
to give the prediction practical utility. 


SUMMARY. 


Briefly summarizing what has gone before, I conclude that the 
chief primary function of a geological survey is geological research 
and that the spirit of investigation should be the same whether the 
work is undertaken to increase knowledge and to serve as the starting 
point for further attacks on the unknown or is begun with a definite 
economic or practical result as its desired goal. Compromise and 
concession are inevitable, but the necessity for making them should 
not and need not permit the real purpose of the organization to sink 
from sight. If the members of a scientific bureau can confidently 
feel that those charged with its direction make such concessions 
wisely with the higher purposes of the bureau really at heart, their 
whole attitude towards their work will be entirely different from 
that into which they will fall if they become convinced that scientific 
ideals receive only perfunctory regard and that the real allegiance 
is directed elsewhere. 

What may be called the chief secondary function of a national 
geological survey is believed to be popular education in geology, 
both for the benefit of the people and as providing the most endur- 
ing basis for the support of such an organization by a democracy. 
Such education should be conducted through every possible channel 
and in close cooperation with all the educational institutions of the 
country. One of its objects should be the revival and encouragement 
of amateur geological observation and study. In.this connection I 
heartily approve the present trend in the policy ‘of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science and believe that this 
great organization will fulfill its purpose and advance science much 
more effectively than at present if it will leave to the various special 
scientific societies the holding of meetings devoted to the presenta- 
tion of scientific papers, — apply itself to the popularization of 
science and to the encouragement of cooperation between different 
branches of science. , 
PERSONNEL. 


Finally, a few words may be said concerning the relation between 
the personnel of a geological survey and the results obtained by the 
organization. If such a survey is to attract to its service men of first- 
rate ability and to hold these men after their development and experi- 
ence have made them of the highest value, certain inducements must 
be offered. Salary is ceded tele the frat of these that comes to 


NATIONAL GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—-RANSOME. 979 


mind under conditions that’ continually force the scientific men in 
Government service to recognize painfully how inadequate at present 
is the stipend upon which he had existed before the war. It is all 
very well to insist that the scientific man does not work for money 
and should not trouble his thoughts with such an unworthy con- 
sideration. Nevertheless if he is to do the best of which he is capable, 
he must be lifted above the grind of poverty, be able to give his chil- 
dren those educational advantages that he can so well appreciate, 
have opportunity for mental cultivation, and feel his social position 
to be such that he can mingle without humiliation with his intel- 
lectual peers. If it: is destructive to the scientific spirit to set up 
material gain as an object, it may be equally blighting to scientific 
achievement: to force the attention continually downward to the 
problem of meager existence. The normal scientific man usually has 
other human beings dependent upon him, and the traditional spirit of 
self-sacrifice and the indifference to material reward that are com- 
monly attributed to the true investigator may, when these members 
of his family are considered, come very close to selfishness. 

However, salary, important as it is, is by no means the only deter- 
minant. If it is reasonably adequate, most men who are animated 
by the spirit of science will find additional reward in their work 
itself if this is felt to be worthy of their best efforts. A man of first- 
rate scientific ability, however, will not enter an organization in 
which consecutive application to a problem is thwarted, in which 
he is expected to turn to this or that comparatively unimportant: 
task as political expediency may dictate, or in which the general 
atmosphere is unfavorable to the initiation and prosecution of re- 
search problems of any magnitude. If a man of the type in mind 
finds himself in such an uncongenial environment, he is likely to go 
elsewhere. The final effect upon the organization will be that its 
scientific staff will be mediocre or worse and it will become chiefly 
a statistical and engineering bureau from which leadership in 
geology will have departed. 

If, on the other hand, a young geologist can feel that every possible 
opportunity and encouragement will be given to him in advancing 
the science of geology; that results on the whole will be considered 
more important than adherence to a schedule; that imagination and 
originality will be more highly valued than routine efficiency or 
mere executive capacity; that he will not be diverted to tasks for 
which, important as they may be, his training and inclination do not 
particularly fit him; that those who direct the organization are 
interested in his development and will give him all possible oppor- 
tunity to demonstrate his power of growth; and that appreciation 
and material reward will be in proportion to his scientific achieve- 


280 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ment, he will then be capable of the best that is in him and will 
cheerfully contribute that best to the credit of the organization that 
he serves. 

A national geological survey should hold recognized leadership 
in geology in the country to which it belongs, and attainment of 
this proud position must obviously depend upon the quality of 
its geological personnel. With respect to personnel, at least three 
conditions may be recognized—first, that in which the ablest geolo- 
gists in the country are drawn to and remain in service; second, 
that in which geologists perhaps of a’ somewhat lower grade as 
regards scientific promise are attracted to the service for a few 
years of training and then pass out to positions where the opportu- 
nities for research or for increased earnings are greater; and, third, 
that in which able young men no longer look upon the geological 
survey as a desirable stepping-stone to a future career. Who can 
doubt that it is the first condition that raises an organization to pre- 
eminence in science and the last that marks opportunities lost or 
unattained? Those responsible for the success of a geological sur- 
vey, if they be wise, will watch the trend of the organization with 
reference to these conditions much as the mariner watches his barom- 
eter and, like him, if the indication be threatening, take action to 
forestall disaster. 


a a ae 


THE INFLUENCE OF COLD IN STIMULATING THE 
GROWTH OF PLANTS. 


By FREDERICK V. COVILLE, 
Botanist; United States Department of Agriculture. 


[With 27 plates.] 


In regions having a cold winter like ours, with prolonged or re- 
peated freezing, the native trees and shrubs become dormant in 
autumn. According to the general belief this condition is brought 
about by the cold. It is also the general belief that warm weather 
is of itself the sufficient cause of the beginning of new growth in 
spring. Both these ideas are erroneous. It is the object of the 
present address to show, first, that in our native trees and shrubs 
dormancy sets in before cold weather, and that cold weather is not 
necessary for the establishment of complete dormancy; second, that 
after such dormancy has begun, the exposure of the plants to an 
ordinary growing temperature does not suffice to start them into 
growth; third, that these plants will not resume normal growth in 
the warm weather of spring unless they have been subjected previ- 
ously to a period of chilling; and, finally, a theory will be advanced 
to explain this paradoxical effect of cold in stimulating growth in- 
stead of retarding it. 

The subject will be presented in a series of numbered statements, 
each followed by supporting evidence. 

1. Trees and shrubs of cold climates become dormant at the end 
of the growing season without the necessity of exposure to cold 
weather. 

A little more than 10 years ago, while engaged in a series of green- 
house experiments, the writer came upon a strange phenomenon 
which was wholly unexpected and which threatened to interfere 
seriously with the successs of the experiments. Healthy blueberry 
plants, intended to be used during the winter for breeding purposes, 
were brought into the greenhouse at the end of summer and were 
kept at an ordinary growing temperature. They refused to continue 
their growth during the autumn, gradually dropped their leaves, and 


1 Address delivered Apr. 27, 1920, before the National Academy of Sciences. Re- 
printed from the Journal of Agricultural Research, vol. 20, pp. 151 to 160, 1920, 


281 


282 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


went into a condition of complete dormancy. They did this at a 
greenhouse temperature which in spring and summer would have kept 
the plants in a condition of luxuriant growth. The completeness of 
the condition of dormancy which such plants reach can be best ap- 
preciated from photographs. (See pl. 1.) 

Since 1910 this experiment has been repeated many times, and 
with many species of plants, and without exception those trees and 
shrubs native of our northern cold-winter region which were tested 
went dormant in fall or winter regardless of temperature. In com- 
paring outdoor plants with indoor plants of the same species the 
most that can be said in favor of outdoor conditions is that dormancy 
progresses a little faster in outdoor plants, evidently because their 
foliage is injured by freezing weather, and they drop their leaves 
somewhat earlier than indoor plants. 

2. Trees and shrubs that are kept continously warm during the 
winter start into growth much later in spring than those that have 
been subjected to a period of chilling. 

In the late winter and early spring of 1910 I waited patiently, 
and then impatiently, for my indoor plants to bloom, and at. last 
I was forced to realize that they never would bloom. When com- 
pared with plants of the same kind that had been outdoors during 
the winter and had been brought into the greenhouse, in early spring, 
the difference was astonishing. The outdoor plants burst into. leaf 
and flower luxuriantly, while the indoor plants remained com- 
pletely dormant and naked. The experiment was repeated many 
times and with various species of plants, some of which may be used 
in illustration. (See pls. 2 to 5.) 

At first it was supposed that the plants needed to be frozen to 
start them into growth, but a single freezing proved not to be effec- 
tive. And then it was found that the dormant plants would start 
into growth without any freezing whatever. It was necessary only 
that they be subjected to a period of prolonged chilling, usually two 
to three months, at a temperature a few degrees above freezing. 

If plants are kept continuously in a warm place without chilling, 
the dormant condition often continues for an extraordinary length 
of time. In some instances plants have remained dormant for a 
whole year under conditions of heat, light, and moisture that ordi- 
narily would make the same plant grow with the greatest luxuriance: 

3. The stimulating effect of cold is limited to such portions of the 
plant as are subjected to the chilling. . 

The conspicuous difference in spring growth between chilled plants 
and plants not chilled has already been shown. These differences, 
furthermore, can be produced experimentally upon different parts 


2 Pat ee 


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Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 2. 


CHILLED AND UNCHILLED PLANTS OF WILD CRAB, MALUS CORONARIA. 


The plant at the left had been outdoors during the fall and winter, leafless and dormant, 
exposed to the frost and cold. The plant at the right had been in the warm greenhouse 
during the fall and winter at a temperature of 55° to 70° F.and became, like the other, 


leafless and dormant. When the outdoor, chilled plant was brought into the greenhouse 
in the early spring it promptly began to put out new leaves and twigs, as shown at the 
left, but the indoor, unchilled plant continued its dormancy, as shown at the right. The 
photograph was taken April 24,1917. (One-fifth natural size.) 


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Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. 


BLUEBERRY PLANT WITH ONE BRANCH STIMULATED TO GROWTH BY 
COLD. 


The right-hand branch has been stimulated to growth by chilling; the left-hand branch 
has been kept dormant by heat. For a detailed description of this experiment see page 283. 
(One-seventh natural size.) 


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' COLD AND GROWTH OF PLANTS—COVILLE. 983 


of the same plant. Plants'thus treated present a very curious and 
remarkable appearance, as shown in plates 6 and 7. 

On February 3, 1912, a blueberry plant (pl. 6) 44 inches in height, 
which had shed ‘its leaves and become dormant in a warm green- 
house, maintained at a temperature of 60° to 70° F., was subjected 
to the following experiment: It was repotted in a 7-inch pot and 
set in the south end of a greenhouse at the temperature already men- 
tioned. A small opening was made in the glass, and through this 
Opening was pushed one of! the two stems of the plant. The open 
space about the stem where it passed through the glass was care- 
fully plugged with moss. During the rest of the winter the plant 
remained in the same position, the pot and the stem shown at the left 
in the illustration continuing in the warm temperature of the green- 
house, while the stem at the right, projecting through the glass, was 
exposed to the rigors of winter, with its alternate freezing and thaw- 
ing. The illustration, from a photograph made April 18, shows that 
when spring came the outdoor branch started into normal growth 
while the indoor branch continued dormant. 

A second illustration (pl. 7) shows a modification of the first ex- 
periment. In this case the plant was set on a shelf outside the green- 
house and a single branch was passed through the glass wall into 
the warm interior. When spring came it was this interior branch 
that remained dormant, all the outside peat putting out leaves 
promptly and normally. 

From a comparison of the two experiments it 1s evident that the 
difference in behavior of the indoor and outdoor branches could not 
have been caused by any special action of the root system, for in one 
experiment the roots were inside, in the other outside. It is clear 
that the causes that stimulated growth in the exposed stems operated 
in the stem itself, not in the roots. This principle is still further 
exemplified and confirmed by the behavior of cuttings taken from 
blueberry plants in the first stages of their dormancy. Such cut- 
tings if kept warm continue their dormancy into late spring or sum- 
mer, but if chilled for two or three months they start into Again at 
the motel time in early spring. 

It should be stated here that: the difference in the amount of light 
inside and outside the greenhouse had nothing to do with the stimu- 
lation to growth, for chilled plants are ready to start into growth 
promptly whether the chilling is done in the full light of an outdoor 
situation, or in the partial light of a greenhouse, or in the complete 
darkness of an ordinary refrigerator. 

4. The stemulating effect. produced on dormant plants by cold is 
intimately associated with the transformation of stored starch tito 
sugar. 


984 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


In most of our wild species of trees and shrubs the reserve carbo- 
hydrate material is stored away during summer and autumn in the 
form of starch, At the beginning of dormancy the twigs and sap- 
wood are gorged with this material, the starch grains being stored 
ordinarily in the cells of the medullary rays and sometimes in the 
pith. As the process of chilling goes on, this starch little by little 
is transformed into sugar. The presence of large quantities of starch 
in the fall and early winter. may be observed by applying to freshly- 
cut surfaces of the twigs the well-known starch test of a 2 per cent 
solution of iodine in:a,1.per cent solution of iodide of potassium. 
With a strong hand lens the starch is readily observed, if present, 
by the deep blue color it assumes under this treatment. The intensity 
of the coloration gives roughly an idea of the number of starch 
grains present, and thus by this simple means anyone may observe 
in the twigs of trees and shrubs the gradual disappearance of their 
starch as spring approaches. 

The measurement of the increasing amount of sugar is more 
difficult and must be done by chemical analysis. Through the 
courtesy of the Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry exact data can be 
presented. on this point from analyses by Mr. Lorin H. Bailey. In 
samples of dormant blueberry wood, taken in early spring when 
growth was about to begin, the ratio of sugar to starch proved to be 
seven times what it was in similar dormant wood taken in autumn. 

I-desire at this time to comment on the fact that one of my 
colleagues reading the manuscript outline of this address criticized 
the use of the word “stimulate” as applied to the effect which 
chilling produces on these dormant plants. His idea was that the 
chilling induced certain physiological changes in the cell contents, 
but that the actual stimulation to growth came from the temperatures 
that followed the chilling. I defend, however, the propriety of the 
language I have used, for although the later stages of growth ad- 
mittedly can not take place without warm temperatures, not only. 
does the transformation from starch to sugar take place at the 
chilling temperature, but the buds actually swell and push if the 
chilling temperature is continued for several months. In illustra- 
tion I may cite the following experiments: 

On March 3, 1915, 286 cuttings were made from dormant outdoor 
blueberry plants. They were stored in bundles, some in moist sphag- 
num moss, others in moist birch sawdust, at a contemplated tempera- 
ture of 31° F., just below freezing. The cuttings remained in cold 
storage until December 6, a little more than nine months. An 
examination of the cuttings on that date showed that with the ex- 
ception of a small number which were mildewed and dead one or 
more buds had begun to swell on every cutting. In other words, 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 8. 


BLUEBERRY CUTTINGS STARTING TO GROW AT 86° F. 


These cuttings were placed in cold storage while still completely dormant. Although 
the temperature did not go above 36° F'., buds on each of the cuttings finally began 


to push, as shown in the illustration. Itis to be noted that although growth took 
place in the buds the other kind of growth, which results in the formation of a callus, 
or healing-over tissue, at the severed base of the cutting, is -wholly lacking. Callus- 
ing can not take place at solow a temperature. (Natural size.) 


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COLD AND GROWTH OF PLANTS—COVILLE. O85 


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The temperature record did not go above 34°. It is an astonish- 
ing fact that temperatures so very near freezing will start dormant 
plants into growth. 

On March 8, 1915, 58 cuttings from dormant outdoor blueberry 
plants were placed in moist birch sawdust in commercial cold storage 
at 33° to 36° F. On December 4, nine months later, buds on every 
cutting had begun to grow. Not one of these cuttings gave a starch 
reaction when tested with iodine. The transformation of their 
stored starch into sugar was complete. (See pls. 8 and 9.) 

5. The theory advanced in explanation of the formation of sugar 
during the process of chilling is that the starch grains stored in the 
cells of the plant are at first separated by the living and actwe cell 
membranes from the enzyme that would transform the starch into 
sugar, but when the plant is chilled the vital activity of the cell 
membrane ts weakened so that the enzyme “leaks” through i, comes 
in contact with the starch, and turns it into sugar. 

I have stated the theory in these words out of regard for simplicity 
and general understanding, but if anyone should require that it 
be presented in orthodox technical language it might be restated as 
follows. The reserve amylum carbohydrate bodies are isolated from 
the amylolytic enzyme by semipermeable protoplasmic living mem- 
branes of high osmotic efficiency, but under the influence of low 
temperatures the protoplasmic membranes are proximately devital- 
ized, they become permeable to the amylolytic enzyme, and amyloly- 
sis ensues. I may add, however, that the use of such terminology 
seems to me to involve a certain degree of unnecessary cruelty. 

From the evidence already presented no one, presumably, will 
question that the chilling of dormant trees and shrubs is followed 
by growth and that the growth is associated with the transformation 
of starch into sugar. But the hypothesis that this transformation 
is brought about by the weakening of the cell membrane and the 
consequent leakage of starch-transforming enzymes into the starch 
chambers may very properly be challenged. In the Tropics there 
is no chilling weather, yet trees and shrubs spring into growth 
after the dormant period of the dry season, just as they do in tem- 
perate climates after the dormant period of winter. The critical 
scientific man will therefore ask: Are there not other agencies than 

chilling which will start, dormant trees and shrubs into growth even 


286 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


in our latitude?’ It must be said in reply that there are. And it 
will be worth while to consider some of these causes, for not only are 
they of interest in themselves but also, instead of weakening the 
hypothesis here presented, they serve to strengthen and confirm it. 

The data may best be presented through a series of illustrations. 

The pruning of a long-dormant plant will often start it into 
growth. (See pl. 10.) 

Girdling produces a similar result. (See pl. 11, fig. 1.) 

Notching the stem does the same. (See pl. 11, fig. 2.) 

Rubbing the stem also starts the plant into growth. (See pls. 12 
and 13.) 

In all these examples of the stimulation of growth by injury it is 
conceived that the enzyme is brought into contact with the starch 
as a direct result of the breaking and straining of the cells. Sugar 
is then formed and growth begins. ~ 

It should be observed’ that when a normal chilled plant starts 
growing it grows from many buds (pl. 14), for the effect of the 
chilling on sugar formation is general. When a dormant plant starts 
growing as the result of injury, however, it usually starts, as shown 
in several illustrations already presented, from a single bud, the one 
nearest the point of injury. The injury is local and both the sugar 
formation and the growth that follows it are local. 

We are now brought to the consideration of a phenomenon which 
I take to be of special significance, namely, the procedure by which 
the dormant plant starts itself into growth in the absence of chill- 
ing. After a blueberry plant has remained dormant at a warm 
temperature for a very long period, sometimes a whole year, the 
tips of the naked branches begin to lose their vitality. Just before 
or just after the death of the tip a single bud, or sometimes two buds, 
situated next below the dead or dying part starts growing. (See pls. 
15 and 16.) The new growth of the stem is confined to the one or two 
buds, just as was found to be the case with growth induced by 
injury. My interpretation of the phenomenon is that as death ap- 
proaches the cell membranes become weakened in much the same way 
as when chilled; the enzyme passes through into the starch storage 
cells, sugar is formed, and the adjacent bud begins to grow. The 
process going forward here in a restricted portion of the stem, and 
due to a local cause, is ‘essentially the same as that taking place 
generally over the plant from a general cause when the plant’ is 
chilled. | 

In the Tropics some plants are able to grow continuously, others 
become dormant in the dry season and'start into growth again at the 
coming of the rainy season. ‘Tropical plants probably have various 
methods of coming out of their dormancy, and there is every reason 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 10. 


DORMANT WILD CRAB STIMULATED TO GROWTH BY PRUNING. 


This plant had remained dormant in the warm greenhouse during the fall and winter at 
a temperature of 55° to 70° F. On April 5 three branches were pruned, and on April 
24, when the photograph was taken, the uppermost bud on each of the pruned 
branches had begun to grow. On other, unpruned plants no bud growth had taken 
place. (Two-thirds natural size.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE II. 


DoRMANT WILD CRABS STIMULATED TO GROWTH BY GIRDLING AND BY NOTCHING 
THE STEM. 


These plants had had the same preliminary treatment as the one illustrated in Plate 10, that 1s, 
they had been kept in the warm greenhouse all winter, without chilling, dormant and leafless. 
On April 4 a ring of bark was removed from the plant shown in the left-hand figure and the 
soft cambium was carefully scraped away down tothehard wood. On April 24, when the photo- 
graph was made, the bud next below the girdle had begun to push. In the case of the right- 
hand plant the stem was notched in early April. The bud next below the notch soon began to 
grow, and the photograph was taken on May 2. (Naturalsize.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 12. 


DORMANT BLUEBERRY BUDS STIMULATED TO GROWTH BY CHALKING THE STEM. 


This plant was brought into the greenhouse February 4, 1913, to be used in breeding experiments. It 
flowered, but having been insufficiently chilled, only a few of the uppermost leaf buds on each stem 
grew. In order to keep small ants from crawling up the stems and interfering with the pollination 
experiments, the stems were chalked near the middle. The dormant buds in and just below the 
chalked area started growing. The photograph was taken April 5, the stems being rechalked over 
the same areas that were originally chalked. After numerous repetitions of the experiment it was 
found thatif the chalking was donelightly the buds would not grow, butif the stems were rubbed hard 
in the process of chalking, as commonly happened in the case of very smooth stems, the buds grew. It 
was the hard rubbing, not the chalk, that stimulated the growth. (Naturalsize.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 13. 


DORMANT BLUEBERRY BUD STIMULATED TO GROWTH BY RUBBING THE STEM. 


The photograph, which was taken June 14, 1913, shows a single bud starting into growth on a 
dormant blueberry plant. The dark area just above the bud is a brown band on an otherwise 
green stem. It shows the position of a rubbing that was given the stem with a smooth knife 
handle a few weeks earlier. This bud afterwards grew into a long vigorous branch, while all the 
other buds remained dormant. (Naturalsize.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 14. 


NORMAL SPRING GROWTH ON A BLUEBERRY STEM. 


Thisillustration is from a photograph taken April 24, 1909. Inthe preceding season the plant had 
sent up an unbranched shoot. After an outdoor chilling through the winter and early spring 
it put out flowers and new twigs, asshownin theillustration. The fact to be especially noted is 
that the new growth on this stem took placefrom numerous buds. (Natural size.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. 5 PLATE I5. 


ABNORMAL SPRING GROWTH ON A BLUEBERRY STEM, DUE TO LACK OF CHILLING. 


This photograph wastaken on May 19,1913. Growth is taking place from only one bud, the third 
from thetip. The uppermost bud isa flowering bud, the second aleafbud. Both are dead or 
dying. This plant has stood in the warm greenhouse all winter and spring. Ifit had had the 
usual two or three months of chilling, its starch would have been transformed into sugar and 
the stem would have flowered and put out new twig growth from numerous buds in the same 
manner as the stem shown in Plate 14. (Natural size. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE I6. 


ABNORMAL GROWTH OF AN UNCHILLED BLUEBERRY PLANT. 


This plant became dormant in the autumn in a warm greenhouse, and not being chilled it 
continued its dormancy through spring and summer for a period of nine months. Then 
three of its stems began to die at the tips and, following this, growth began to take place 
from a single bud next below the dying tip on each stem, as shown in the illustration. 
For the explanation of this abnormal activity see page 286. The photograph was taken 
October 12, 1916. (Half natural size.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 17. 


BLUEBERRY LEAF EXUDING SUGAR FROM GLANDS INTERPRETED AS OSMOTIC-PRESSURE 
: SAFETY VALVES. 


This is a leaf of the high-bush blueberry, Vacciniwm corymbosum. The photograph was taken May 19, 
1916, and isenlarged four diameters. The sugar-secreting glands, sometimescalled extrafloralnectaries, 
are situated in this plant on the back of the midrib and along the margins of theleaf, toward its base. 
The drops of sugar solution have been wiped away from the glands on theleft-hand margin and from 
two glands on the midrib at the base ofthe second and fourth lateral veins above thesugar drop shown 
nearthe middle ofthe picture. Thisexudation ofsugarisinterpreted as a means ofrelieffrom excessive 
internal pressure that might burst the cells ofthe plant or derangeits physiological activities. 


' COLD AND GROWTH OF PLANTS—COVILLE. 987 


to expect that some of them will be found to accomplish this act in 
the same way as our long-dormant greenhouse plants, by the weak- 
ening of their cell membranes. ‘This, I have endeavored to show, is 
in its effect substantially identical with chilling. 

6. The twigs of trees and shrubs after their winter chilling and the 
transformation of their starch into sugar may be regarded as mechan- 
isms for the development of high osmotic pressures which start the 
plant into growth. . 

Food in the form of starch can not be utilized by a plant directly. 
The starch must be changed into sugar before it can be used in mak- 
ing new growth. But this transformation does more than make the 
starch available as food for the growing plant. It serves also to 
increase the tendency of the cells to swell and enlarge. In the form 
of starch the material is inert in the creation of osmotic pressures, 
but when transformed into sugar it becomes exceedingly active. Ac- 
cording to the rigid experimental tests of H. N. Morse and his asso- 
ciates, a normal solution of cane sugar at'32° F. has an osmotic power 
of 25 atmospheres of pressure. It has been demonstrated that there 
sometimes occur in the cells of plants osmotic pressures as high as 
‘30 atmospheres, or 450 pounds to the square inch, a pressure sufficient 
to blow the cylinder head off an ordinary steam engine. It can hardly 
be questioned that these or even much lower osmotic pressures take 
an important part in forcing open the buds of once dormant plants. 

We have evidence that there sometimes arise within the plant 
osmotic pressures of such intensity as to threaten the rupture of the 
cells. Consider the case of the exudation of drops of sugar solution 
from certain specialized glands. When this exudate of sugar occurs 
in flowers it is known as nectar and it serves a useful purpose to the 
plant by attracting sugar-loving insects which unconsciously carry 
pollen from flower to flower and accomplish the beneficial act of 
eross-pollination. But sugar solution is often exuded outside the 
flower, in positions, or at times, that preclude any relation to cross- 
pollination. For example, a blueberry plant during its spring 
growth, when a leaf has reached nearly full size, is sometimes ob- 
served to exude drops of sugar solution from certain glands on the 
margins of the leaf and on the back of the mid-rib. (See pl: 17.) 
It is physically impossible that the sugar has left the cells by osmosis. 
The sugar serves no useful purpose to the plant through the attrac- 
tion of insects. The exudate certainly can not represent. the elimina- 
tion of a waste product, for sugar is one of the substances most used 
by plants in forming new tissues. I can conceive of no reason why 
the plant should exude sugar except to relieve a dangerous physio- 
logical condition, namely, the development of excessive osmotic 
pressures which would burst the cells of the plant or in some other 


288 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


way derange its physiological activities. I look upon such sugar 
glands as safety valves for the relief of excessive osmotic pressures 
that are dangerous to the internal economy of the plant. And not 
only is this conception applicable to extrafloral nectaries in general, 
but it may serve also, in the case of floral nectaries, to explain their 
origin. Having once arisen as osmotic safety valves, the usefulness 
of the floral nectaries.as an aid to cross-pollination would tend 
strongly to bring about their natural selection and perpetuation. 

7. The establishment of a dormant condition. before the advent of 
freezing weather and the continuation of this dormancy through 
warm periods in late fall and early winter are protective adapta- 
tzons of vital necessity to the native trees and shrubs. 

A little consideration will show how important the principle of 
chilling is to those species of trees and shrubs which are subjected 
each year to several months of freezing weather. If they were so 
constituted as to start into growth as easily in the warm days of late 
fall as they do in the warm days of early spring, many species would 
come into flower and leaf in those warm autumn spells that we call 
Indian summer, and the stored food that the plant required for 
its normal vigorous growth in the following spring would be 
wasted in a burst of autumn growth, which would be killed by the 
first heavy freezes, and would be followed by a winter of weakness 
and probable death. But when two or three months of chilling are 
necessary before a newly dormant plant will respond to the usual 
effect of warmth, such plants are protected against the dangers of 
growth in Indian summer. It is probable that all our native trees 
and shrubs are thus protected. 

Any member of this audience may make, next fall and winter, a 
simple and instructive experiment with such early spring blooming 
plants as alder, hazelnut, pussy willow, yellow bush jasmine, forsythia, 
Japanese quince, peach, and plum. In mid-autumn bring into your 
living room and set in water freshly cut dormant leafless branches 
of these plants. They will not bloom. At intervals of a few weeks 
during late autumn and winter try the same experiment again. 
You will find that the branches cut at later dates will come into 
bloom under this treatment. They will not do so, however, until 
the expiration of the period of chilling appropriate to the various 
kinds of plants included in the experiment. The required period 
of chilling varies greatly. In the case of some of the cultivated 
shrubs about Washington, especially the yellow bush jasmine 
(Jasminum nudifiorum), so brief a period of chilling is required 
that extraordinarily cold weather in late October or early No- 
vember may chill them sufficiently to induce them to bloom if a 
period of warm weather follows in late November. The period of 


COLD AND GROWTH OF PLANTS—COVILLE. 289 


chilling required for the peach is so short that in Georgia unusually 
warm weather in December sometimes brings the trees into flower, 
and their crop of fruit is destroyed by the freezes that follow. 

From these facts it appears that our native trees and shrubs are 
so intimately adjusted to the changes of the climate to which they 
have been long subjected that they are almost completely protected 
from injury by freezing, but some of the cultivated species brought 
from parts of the world having a climate different from ours are 
only imperfectly adapted to our climatic changes. They grow at 
times when our native species have learned to hold themselves dor- 
mant, and they often suffer severely in consequence. 

Chilling, as a protective adaptation, has become a physiological 
-necessity-in the life history of cold-winter trees and shrubs. So 
fixed, indeed, is the habit that it appears to be a critical factor in 
determining how far such plants may go in the extension of their 
geographic distribution toward the Tropics. In the Tropics our 
common northern fruit trees, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, grow 
well for a time and then become half dormant. In the absence of chill- 
ing they never fully recover from their dormancy; they grow with 
weakened vitality and finally die. If these fruits are to be grown 
successfully in the tropics they must be given artifically the periodic 
chilling they require. 

When it became evident from the earlier observations and ex- 
periments that chilling played so essential a part in the behavior of 
our trees and shrubs it was clear that additional experiments ought 
to be conducted in which actively growing plants might be sub- 
jected to chilling temperatures without being put in a dark place 
like the ordinary .refrigerator. To meet the requirement of both 
cold and light a glass-covered, outdoor, brick chamber was con- 
structed in 1912. It was kept above freezing by heating with electric 
lights, which were turned on and off automatically by a simple 
thermostat. In summer the chamber was kept cool, though not 
really cold, by means of ice and electric fans. Although much was 
learned with this apparatus it was crude and inadequate. To pro- 
vide for more exact experiments a glass-covered compartment chilled 
by a refrigerating machine was constructed in one of the Department 
of Agriculture greenhouses. The refrigerating apparatus is a sul- 
phur-dioxide machine having a refrigerating power equivalent to 
1,000 pounds of ice a day. It is run by a 2-horsepower electric 
motor, and it furnishes ample refrigeration for the lighted com- 
partment, which is.a glass-covered frame 25 feet long, 3 feet wide, 
and 14 to 20 inches in depth. The first of these refrigerated frames 
was devised and constructed in 1916. In this enterprise I had the 
valued advice and assistance of Dr. Lyman J. Briggs. The useful- 


290 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


ness of this refrigerated frame in experimental work with plants 
was so great that another similar equipment was installed in 1918. 

With the aid of this apparatus many of the experiments described 
in this address have been carried on or verified, as well as other 
experiments of a related character.. For example, at ordinary summer 
temperatures many kinds of seed will not. germinate but remain 
dormant until death overtakes them. Under the influence of chilling, 
however, these seeds are stimulated to prompt germination. (See 
pl. 18.) f 

The experiments thus far made indicate the importance of a much 
wider use of the principle of chilling in many lines of experimenta- 
tion bearing on the improvement of horticultural and-agricultural 
practices.. I commend the subject of chilling to experimenters in - 
these lines, and I wish to call especial attention to the desirability 
of determining proper temperatures for the storage of seeds, bulbs, 
cuttings, and grafting wood; proper temperatures for the treat- 
ment of plants which are to be forced from dormancy to growth at 
unusual seasons; and proper temperatures for the storage of nursery 
stock, so that, the nurseryman may haye plants in proper condi- 
tion for shipment on any date he desires. (See pls. 19 to 23.) 

The whole. question of the effect of chilling on herbaceous peren- 
nials is an open field. 

An understanding of the process of chilling explains the reason 
of some of the practices of gardeners, which they, as well as botanists, 
have erroneously ascribed to the need of “resting.” What a gardener 
calls “resting” is often in reality a period of chilling, characterized 
not, by physiological rest, but by pronounced internal activity.. Rest 
alone would not, in the case of our. cold-climate trees and shrubs, ac- 
complish the purpose the gardener has in mind. It is chilling, not 
rest merely, that is, required. The practice of gardeners and nur- 
serymen known as the “stratification” of seeds is probably to be 
explained as in reality a process of chilling. 

As a single example of the application of the principle of chilling 
let me cite the case of the blueberry. For several years we have been 
trying at the Department of Agriculture to domesticate this wild 
plant.. We have raised many thousand hybrids and have set. them out 
in waste sandy lands in the pine barrens of New Jersey. (See pl. 24.) 
We have grown the bushes to fruiting age and brought them into 
highly productive bearing. (See pl. 25.) We have made them fruit 
so lusciously. and so abundantly that they have brought. returns to 
the. grower at the rate of more than $1,000 an acre.. In a word, we 
have changed the blueberry froma small wild fruit the size of a pea to. 
a fruit the size of a Concord grape, and we have made its culture a 
profitable industry. (See pls. 26 and 27.) These things we should not 


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Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. 


PLATE 19. 


TRAILING ARBUTUS, EPIGAEA REPENS, FLOWERING SPARINGLY FROM LACK OF 
CHILLING. 


This plant oftrailing arbutus was grown fromseed. Intheautumn, when about a year old, it laid 


down clusters of flowering buds. It waskeptin a warm greenhouse all winter, but when flower- 
he time aan most ofits flower buds were dead and brown. Only a single flower opened. 
atural size. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 21. 


BLUEBERRY PLANT FORCED INTO FLOWER IN SEPTEMBER BY ARTIFICIAL 
CHILLING. 


The plant that bore this cluster of flowers was brought indoorsin late winter. Itmadenew growth 
and during the cool weather of May it laid down flowering buds for the next year, as a blueberry 
plant ordinarily doesin autumn. During the summer, however, the plant was given an arti- 
ficial winter by chilling it for three months in an artificially refrigerated glass-covered frame 
exposed to daylight. When brought out of the frame, in September, the plant promptly 
flowered, as shown in theillustration. (Natural size.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville, PLATE 22. 


ccoeiiies es ‘ 

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Soe Nan ees z 

Len camel 5 


AWAKENING OF LONG DORMANT PLANTS BY ARTIFICIAL CHILLING. 


Theillustration consists of two photographs of the same plant. At theleft is shown the condition of 
the plant on December 26, 1916, after more than a year of warmthand dormancy. The figure at the 
right, from a photograph taken April 27 1917, shows the appearance of the plant after it had been 
subjected to artificia lchilling for a period of three months and then had been returned to the warm 
pee house: Tt began to put out new growth from 10 or more ofits leafbuds. Even after its ex- 
raordinarily 


4 y long period of dormancy the plant had been brought back to normal activity by a 
suitable period ofchilling. (One-fifth naturalsize.) 


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Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. ; PLATE 26. 


THE ORDINARY WILD BLUEBERRY OF NEW JERSEY. 


This is a photograph, natural size, of a quart box of wild New Jersey blueberries rather better than 


the average. It was taken for the purpose of comparison with the selected hybrid blueberries 
shown in Plate 27. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Coville. PLATE 27. 


FRUIT OF A SELECTED HYBRID BLUEBERRY. 


Thisillustration shows, in natural size, a quart box of blueberries from a hybrid produced at Wash- 
ington and fruited at Whitesbog. The photograph represents the average product of the bush, 
forit was taken from a clean picking, including the small berries as wellasthelarge ones. Hybrid 
berries of still larger size have been fruited at Whitesbog. 


COLD AND GROWTH OF PLANTS—COVILLE. 991 


have been able to do unless we had first worked out the principle 
of chilling, an understanding of which was essential to our work of 
breeding and propagation. 

In conclusion I wish to express the opinion that the chilling ot 
dormant trees and shrubs of temperate climates as a prerequisite to 
their resumption of normal growth in spring ought to be recognized 
in books on plant physiology as one of the normal processes in plant 
life. These works should contain chapters on chilling, just as they 
now contain chapters on other fundamental factors and principles 
relating to the life history of plants. And especially in books on 
plant physiology in relation to agriculture should the subject of 
chilling be dealt with in detail, for when in the pursuit of agriculture 
we take plants from one part of the world to another, or undertake 
to grow them out of season, or attempt to propagate them in quan- 
tity by grafting or by other processes unknown in nature, we are 
greatly handicapped and limited in our operations if we do not 
understand the principles of a process so widely existent in nature 
and so indispensable to a large proportion of the plants of temperate 
agriculture as the process of chilling. 


ae 2 iim 


wT fad 


FLORAL ASPECTS OF BRITISH GUIANA 


By A. 8. HircHcocx. 


[With 12 plates.] 


Through the cooperation of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University, and the 
New York Botanical Garden a visit was made to British Guiana for 
the purpose of studying its flora and collecting specimens of the 
flowering plants and ferns. The observations were made between 
October 22, 1919; and February 2, 1920." 

British Coane a British colene in northern South America, lying 
between Venezuela and Dutch Guiana, and between the Aplantio 
Ocean and Brazil, has an area of 90,277 square miles.?. It extends 
along the Atlantic coast about 270 miles and southward 540 miles on 
the western and 300 miles on the eastern side (lat. 1° to 8° N., long. 
57° to 61° W., approximately). 

There are three important rivers approximately parallel flowing 
northward into the ocean besides the Courantyne which forms the 
eastern boundary. These are, from west to east, the Essequibo, the 
Demerara, and the Berbice. The Essequibo is one of the large rivers 
of the world, receiving two important tributaries from the west, the 
Mazaruni af the Cuyuni.. 

The coastal region is a low swampy alluvial belt almost 10 miles 
deep on the western border and about 40 miles deep along the Couran- 
tyne. Much of this is below the level of high tide and the water is 
excluded by dikes and sea walls. In places the land may be as much 
as 10 feet above high water but the general impression to the eye is a 
perfectly level plain. Approaching the coast from the sea one notes 
first the tall chimneys of sugar factories and occasional tall trees 
before any other sign of land is visible. 

Next to this coastal region there is a broad belt of higher somewhat 
undulating land interspersed with sand dunes and clay hills, but of 
scarcely more than 200 feet elevation anywhere. Still farther south 
and west there is a series of plateaus 1,200 to 2,000 feet in altitude. 
When streams descend from one plateau to another there are 

1 An account of the nericy ill be found in the Journal of the New York Botanical 
Garden, July, 1920. 


2Much of the statistical matter is taken from the British Guiana Handbook for 1918, 
the second and last edition. 


12573°—-21—20 ae ot 298 


294 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


gorges and waterfalls. One of the most beautiful of the falls is 
Kaieteur Falls, 741 feet high and 400 feet wide. The only mountains 
as distinguished from hills lie on the border in the region where 


A BOLIVIA 


ox 


fy ren 


5 PARA 
¥ GUA 


ey 


Lee 


fe 


ARGENT ID 


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Fic. 1.—South America, showing position of British Guiana. 
British Guiana, Venezuela, and Brazil join. The culminating peaks 


are Roraima and Kukenaam, table mountains with precipitous sides 
rising 5,000 feet above the plateau and reaching an altitude of about 


FLORA OF BRITISH GUIANA—HITCHCOCK. 995 


8,600 feet. The general level of the savanna region in the southern 
part of the Colony is oniy about 300 to 400 feet. 

The region was first settled by the Dutch at Kyk-over-al about 
1615. This place is a little island a few miles above Bartica in the 
Mazaruni River near Kartabo. Settlements were later made on the 
Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice Rivers, which grew into colonies. 
These passed to Great Britain about 1815 and were united into the 
colony of British Guiana in 1831. The names of the original colonies 
are preserved in the names of the counties into which the Colony 
is divided. The county of Essequibo includes the drainage system 
of the Essequibo River and the coastal region west to Venezuela; 
the much smaller county of Demerara includes the drainage system 
of the Demerara River and, along the coast, to the Abary River. 
The county of Berbice includes the drainage system of the Berbice 
River and east to the boundary, which is the Courantyne River. 

The means of communication are mainly by boat. The rivers are 
navigable for some distance (50 to 60 miles) but are finally much 
interrupted by rapids. Beyond steamer or launch navigation 
progress is slow, by canoes and small boats, with frequent portages. 
There is practically no communication in the interior by roads. 
There are paths here and there to connect one river with another, 
but supplies must be carried by porters. The longest trip that one 
can make inland without a special outfit is from Georgetown to 
Tumatumari on the Potaro River. This is accomplished as follows: 
By steamer (three times a week) to Wismar on the Demerara River; 
by rail to Rockstone on the Essequibo (rapids prevent the ascent of 
the Essequibo) ; the following morning by launch to Tumatumari, 
arriving from 6 to 10 p.m., according to conditions. There are good 
rest houses at Rockstone and Tumatumari.~ The rapids at the latter 
point prevent a further ascent of the Potaro, but a small launch runs 
above the rapids a few miles to Potaro Landing to supply a gold- 
mining company. <A trip up the Essequibo to the Rupununi cattle 
region of the southern part of the colony is said to take a minimum 
of three weeks from Georgetown. A railroad runs along the coast 
from Georgetown to Rosignol opposite New Amsterdam, and another 
from Vreed-en-Hoop, opposite Georgetown, to Parika on the Esse- 
quibo. In the immediate vicinity of the coast there are good auto- 
mobile roads. 

The climate is strictly tropical, but is tempered by the trade wind. 
The mean monthly rainfall at Georgetown is as follows (1880-1912) : 


=F: Wa) Ech ch eee os RRO DOORN MAIER A gl SE 7) 1 ES RTL RS eal 6.31 
REDE Mary ee a te Be 6.78. September 202 oe 3. 01 
ye eee eee ee PA PC) 0c a a 2. 35 
aX GY rt gl RSS SON Pe Se silt ae eon INOVEMINEI = sen owe eee a 5. 26 
Di hema Nace eae Sa EET OO Wi egemner Sue te sis 11..46 
CFLS CS pata erllns Aeleel ear aD un Se 12. 06 


296 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


It will be seen from this that there are two wet and two dry 
seasons, though these are not very sharply defined. |The long dry 


Seraag oP ee \ 


Fic. 2.—The colony of British Guiana. 


season from August to November is usually to be depended upon, but 
the other seasons vary.. On the lower Essequibo the rainfall may 


FLORA OF BRITISH GUIANA—HITCHCOCK. 297 


rise to over 150 inches, while in the savanna region of the south it 
may fall to 50 inches. 

The temperature near the coast is very uniform. The mean maxi- 
mum (Fahrenheit) is 83° in the winter and 87° in the summer, while 
the mean minimum ranges between 74.5° and 76.5°. In the hottest 
part of the year, the long dry season, August to November, the 
temperature (shade) rarely goes higher than 88° and at night falls 
to about 80°. In the winter it rarely falls below 74° and usually 
rises only to 82° to 84°. The temperature in the sun is strikingly 
high in contrast (140° to 145°). The humidity is always high. Be- 
cause of this it is uncomfortable to be out of the air currents. The 
houses are raised on pillars and the structure is open to allow a free 
circulation. Clothing and leather mold quickly. 

The population of the entire colony is about 300,000. The per- 
centage of the different races is given in the Handbook (1913) as 
follows: Europeans, 1.3; Portuguese, 3.4;.East Indians, 42.7; Chi- 
nese, 0.9; Negroes, 39; mixed races, 10.2; aborigines, 2.3. The popu- 
lation of Georgetown is about 60,000, of which 4.5 per cent, are 
whites, and of New Amsterdam, about 9,000. The great majority 
of the people are to be found near the coast. 

The drinking water of the coast region is obtained from rain 
water caught in tanks. The general water supply of Georgetown 
and the neighboring plantations is obtained from the East. Coast 
Water Conservancy. This is a swampy area lying southeast of the 
city. Dikes have been built to impound the water in several square 
miles behind the river and coast plantations and extending east to 
a dike near the Mahaica River. The south limit is the slightly 
higher land back of the swampy area. The water is led to its destina- 
tion by a series of canals. 

The drainage of Georgetown is intertidal. There is an outflow 
during low tide and tide gates shut out the sea water during high 
tide. 

The health of the colony is fairly satisfactory. There is no yel- 
low fever, but malaria and dysentery are rather common. The 
death rate is about 35 per thousand among the population as a whole, 
but only 14.8 among the whites. On account of the drainage system 
and the open canals it is difficult to protect the lower class of the 
population largely made up of East Indians and Negroes. 

The industries are mainly agricultural, though the production of 
gold and diamonds is of some importance. There are large de- 
posits of bauxite (an oxide of aluminum) which are just commenc- 
ing to be exploited. Timber is also.an important minor industry. 
There are many kinds of woods exported, the best known probably 
being the greenheart (Vectandra rodioei), a wood much used. for 
piles, lock gates, and other structures in contact with salt water, be- 


298 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


cause the wood is resistant to the teredo. Another product that 
comes within the domain of forestry is the balata, a substance re- 
sembling gutta percha obtained from the milky juice of a native 
forest tree (Mimusops globosa). The trees are bled in about the 


VNVIND H9LNT 
5 as 


a 


Same manner as the rubber tree. Rubber itself is not gathered from 
the wild trees in appreciable amounts. 

The agricultural industries occupy the chief place in the life and 
commerce of the country. Of these by far the most important is 
the production of sugar. This has always been a valuable product 
since the early days of the colony, but during the war it assumed 


Fig. 3.—Northern part of British Guiana, showing regions visited. 


FLORA OF BRITISH GUIANA—HITCHCOCK. 299 


a greater importance because of:the conditions favorable to increased 
profit. Sugar and its by-products constitute about three-fourths 
the value of all exports. The sugar plantations are found along the 
coast in the alluvial plain from the Pomeroon district to the Couran- 
tyne River and along the rivers for a few miles above where they 
empty into the sea. Especially are the sugar plantations found along 
the “East Coast,” the coast east of Georgetown, and the “ West 
Coast,” the coast between the Demerara and Essequibo rivers, and 
the “ East Bank” of the Demerara, for a few miles south of George- 
town. 

In recent years rice has assumed some importance as an export 
crop. Other agricultural products are coconuts, cacao, coffee, rubber 
(Hevea brasiliensis), and limes, all of minor importance. Fruits are 
grown locally but, aside from limes, are scarcely of commercial. im- 
portance. 

Cattle raising is carried on in connection with the sugar planta- 
tions, but more extensively. in the Rupununi district, an upland 
savanna region of the southern part of the colony. This is an east- 
ward extension of the great savannas of Venezuela. The cattle are 
exported to Brazil as the communication with that country by way 
of the Rio Branco and thus to Manaos is easier than through the 
forest region to the coast of British Guiana. Recently a cattle trail 
has been cut through and one or two herds of cattle have been 
brought north successfully. 

The chief native food plants of the colony are the yam (Dioscorea 
sp.), cassava (Manihot utilissima), eddo and tannia (Colocasia 
esculenta or allied species), the sweet potato (/pomaea batatas), rice 
(Oryza sativa), plantain (Musa paradisiaca), and several legumes 
such as the pigeon pea (Cajanus indicus) and the bonavist or bonny- 
vis (Dolichos lablab). The bread fruit (Artocarpus incisa) is grown 
to a limited extent. 

The common vegetables are the tomato, egg plant or boulanger, 
the okra or gumbo (Hibiscus esculentus) and several kinds of 
pumpkins and squashes. 

Peppers in great variety are much grown for flavoring and the 
sorrel or roselle ({2biscus sabdariffa) for making acid drinks. 

The flora of British Guiana has been made known chiefly through 
the collections of Jenman, who was superintendent of the Castleton 
Gardens in Jamaica from 1878 to 1879 when he came to Georgetown 
as government botanist and superintendent of the botanical garden. 
The first collections of importance were made by Schomburgk who 
made two journeys into the interior (1835-1839 and 1840-1844) the 
second for the purpose of fixing the boundaries of the colony. The 
Jenman collection forms the basis of the herbarium at the botanical 
garden of Georgetown and is known officially as the Jenman Her- 


800 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


barium. This collection is well arranged and. is in good cases acces- 
sible for study in the director’s office at the garden. The collection 
contains also specimens collected by Im Thurn on Roraima; by 
McConnell and Quelch at the same place; and by Bartlett, Stockdale, 
Abraham, and other ‘recent botanists connected with the botanical 
garden. 

The official botanical work of the colony is now under the general 
direction of Prof. J. B. Harrison, Director of Science and Agriculture: 

Originally nearly all of British Guiana was covered with forest, 
the exceptions being the upland savanna region of the Rupununi 
District in the southern part of the colony mostly between 3° and 
5° latitude, and the coastal savannas which are marshy areas. The 
forest has been removed in part from the areas under cultivation 
which, however, are a small proportion of the whole. 

To the visitor the plants that first attract attention are those culti- 
vated for ornament. Some of these are natives of some part of the 
colony, but many are exotics. A striking feature of the Tropics is the 
palms, of which many species are to be found in Georgetown. ‘There 
is a fine collection in the botanical garden. The coconut (Cocos 
nucifera), 2 conspicuous feature of the landscape, is common here as 
on all tropical shores. The cabbage palm (Oreodowa oleracea) is 
commonly planted along streets and gives an especially fine effect 
when adult trees form long rows on either side of avenues. The 
cabbage palm resembles the coconut, both having pinnate leaves, 
but in the former the inflorescence is borne some distance below the 
crown of leaves, while in the latter it is borne in the axils of the 
leaves of the crown. The royal palm (Oreodoxa regia) is less com- 
mon than the cabbage palm and can be distinguished by the very 
smooth even trunk which bulges in the middle. 

Among the native palms may be mentioned the eta palm (Mawritia 
flexuosa) with palmate leaves and large clusters of small fruits about 
an inch in diameter; the manicole (H'uterpe edulis) with very slen- 
der erect stem, and the troolie (M/anicaria saccifera) much used for 
thatching. One of the climbing forms (Desmoncus sp.) is a great 
nuisance to the collector because of the prolonged midribs, covered 
with reflexed thorns, the ends dangling in the air to catch the unwary 
traveler. 

There is a great variety of trees planted along the streets and in 
the parks of Georgetown, all of much interest to the botanist. Only 
a few of these can be mentioned here. Probably the commonest of the 
conspicuous trees is the saman or raintree (Pithecolobium saman, 
Samanea saman), with a graceful rounded widely spreading top. The 
flame tree or flamboyant (Deloniw regia, Poinciana regia), bears 
large clusters of showy scarlet flowers that cover the tree when the 


FLORA OF BRITISH GUIANA—HITCHCOCK. 301 


leaves have dropped. The frangipani (Pluméera alba) has white 
flowers and large stubby twigs that give the tree a coarse ugly ap- 
pearance when the leaves have fallen. The cannonball tree (Cow- 
roupita guianensis) is curious in that it bears the flowers and fruits 
in a tangle of: short branches along the trunk between the foilage 
branches and the ground. The fruits are globose, russet-brown, about 
6 inches in diameter, and evil-smelling, though the flowers are sweet 
scented. The queen of flowers (Lagerstroemia speciosa), a tall tree, 
and the crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), a large shrub, are 
frequent in parks and gardens. In Georgetown the first of these is 
frequently called king of flowers and the second queen of flowers. 

Among the shrubs one sees the hibiscus (Hzbiscus rosa-sinensis) 
with many varieties, the rose of Sharon (ZZ. syriacus), and the coral 
hibiscus (4. schizopetalus). ‘The crotons (Codiaeum variegatum) 
are present in endless varieties, cultivated because of the beautifully 
mottled, often spirally twisted, leaves. The copper leaf (Acalypha 
wilkesiana) is also cultivated for its bronze green or mottled foliage, 
the leaves being heart shaped. A rather common hedge plant is — 
Nothopanax guilfoylei, with white-margined leaflets. 

There are several ornamental vines. The most conspicuous is the 
bougainvillea, a truly gorgeous plant when in full flower. There 
are three species here. These are known in Georgetown as Bougain- 
villea sanderiana, with purple flowers (bracts), B. lateritea, with 
terra-cotta flowers, and B. glabra, with pink flowers. The first is 
the most abundant and probably the most beautiful. The red coralita 
(Antigonon leptopus) and a white variety of the same are common. 
The allamanda (varieties of Allamanda cathartica) has large yellow 
somewhat beli-shaped flowers. The gloriosa (Gloriosa superba) is 
a strange-looking climbing lily with spirally twisted perianth divi- 
sions. A most attractive vine is the petrea or purple wreath (Petrea 
volubilis) with long, drooping racemes of lavender or purple flowers. 
There is also a white variety. 

The flora of the colony can best be reviewed by reference to the 
natural ecologic conditions. First, however, a few words may well 
be devoted to the introduced flora. A very large proportion of the 
plants found in the vicinity of the towns and the plantations is in- 
troduced. Among the grasses 20 per cent of all the known species 
of the colony are introduced, and since these species are found 
mostly around the settlements, they would constitute there a much 
greater proportion. .Comparing the grass flora of Georgetown with 
that of the West Indies, one is surprised at the absence or rarity of 
certain species commonly introduced in the latter region. Among 
these may be mentioned Hragrostis ciliaris, E'. pilosa, Dactyloctenium 
aegyptium, Chloris ciliata, C. paraguayensis, C. petraea, C. radiata, 


302 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Nazia aliena, Anthephora hermaphrodita, V alota insularis, Paspalum 
paniculatum, Panicum fasciculatum, Cenchrus viridis, Manisuris 
granularis, All these species are common weeds in the West Indies. 

The mangrove formation is conspicuous along nearly the whole 
of the coast of British Guiana and extends along the banks of the 
rivers as far as the influence of salt water reaches. The tide is felt 
many miles inland, usually as far as the first rapids, that is, from 
30 to 60 miles, though the salt water may not reach this far. Salt- 
water plants are found in places where the surface water is fresh. 
It is probable that in such places the lower layers of salt or brackish 
water are overlain with fresh water. The chief species of trees 
making up the mangrove formation are black mangrove (/hizo- 
phora mangle), white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa), courida 
(Avicennia nitida), and bindoree (Drepanocarpus lunatus). The 
black mangrove has glossy thick dark green leaves. The seeds 
germinate while still attached to the branches and the root extends 
down as a cylindrical brown object several inches long, looking like 
long pods. These finally fall off and the young plant falls into the 
mud or is carried by currents till it is stranded and then continues 
growth. The roots of the tree are arched and stilt-like, forming a 
tangled mass through which the tide rises and falls. The black 
mangrove appears to be more common along river banks than along 
the sea coast. 

The white mangrove has smooth leaves and white pubescent 
spikes of flowers, the hard nutlike fruits obovate and two-ridged. 
The courida has the leaves whitened beneath and produces large 
numbers of vertical air roots that come up through the soil in the 
vicinity of the plants. The binderee or bindoree pimpler is a vicious 
plant because of the numerous short firm recurved stipular prickles. 
This species belongs to the legume family and has racemes of rather 
small blue papilionaceous flowers and flat curved or lunate pods. 

On a sand flat near Kitty Village, a suburb of Georgetown, may 
be seen several characteristic shore plants. A creeping morning 
glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae) with upright flowering stems a foot 
or two tall is abundant. Other common species are a kind of salt 
grass (Sporobolus virginicus), seashore heliotrope (Heliotropium 
curassavicum) , with one-sided curved racemes of small white flowers, 
sea purslane (Seswvium portulacastrum), with spreading or creep- 
ing fleshy stems and pink star-shaped flowers in the axils of the 
leaves, salt-wort (Batis maritima), a semishrub a foot or two high 
growing in the mud around the mangroves, and love vine or dodder 
(Cuscuta sp.), a yellow leafless vine parasitic on the sea purslane. 

The coastal region, the alluvial plain extending several miles back 
from the coast, is to a considerable degree occupied by marshes. On 


FLORA OF BRITISH GUIANA——HITCHCOCK. 303 


account of the heavy rainfall the water is fresh except near tidal 
estuaries where it is more or less brackish. The marshes are inter- 
spersed with rivers and creeks, and water plants are abundant. The 
most characteristic tree of this region is the eta palm (Mauritia flex- 
uosa) which gives the marshes the aspect of the low land along the 
coast of South Carolina where the cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto) 
is the prevailing tree. The eta palm has a cluster of deeply cut fam- 
shaped leaves. | 

A common plant in the marshes and along the streams is: mucka- 
mucka (Montrichardia arborescens), an erect aroid growing to the 
height of 10 to 15 feet, gregarious in dense impenetrable thickets. 
The stem is thicker at the base and covered with short straight 
prickles. The white flowers are:about the shape of those of the calla 
lily. A great variety of water plants are found here, many of them 
with showy flowers, and many species of sedges and grasses. The 
giant Victoria regia is native to the rivers farther inland but is freely 
planted in the canals of the botanical garden and other parts of 
Georgetown. The immense leaves are several feet in diameter and 
are turned up at the edges. Several species of water lilies are found, 
some native, some introduced, with flowers white, yellow, pink, and 
blue. The water hyacinth (two species of Hichornia or Piaropus) 
with a showy cluster of lavender evanescent flowers and the leaves 
swollen and hollow at the base, several species of Utricularia and 
Pinguicula, water lettuce (Pistia stratiodes), Cabomba, Salvinia, 
Azolla, and Mayaca, are frequent. . 

Somewhat farther up the rivers is found the wild cacao (Pachira 
aquatica), with digitate leaves, large tassel-like flowers as much as 
8 inches long, and brown fruit about the shape of a cacao pod. 

When a clearing is allowed to grow up to forest one of the first 
species to make its appearance in quantity is the trumpet tree 
(Cecropia peltata). 

The virgin forest covers nearly the whole of British Guiana. 
This climax of vegetation is of great interest, for it represents the 
resultant of the struggle of existence between species and indi- 
viduals rather than between plants and their physical environment, 
such as climate and soil conditions. The forest of the Tropics differs 
much in aspect and composition from the forest of the north. A 
redwood forest of the Pacific slope impresses one as being a collec- 
tion of magnificent trees; the rain forest of the Tropics impresses 
one as being a vast amount of vegetation, but not as a collection of 
large trees. The edge of a forest, either where it abuts upon a clear- 
ing or where it overhangs a river, is very luxuriant, presenting to 
the eye an impenetrable wall of green, There is the same vigor of 


304 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


growth at the top of the forest. In general, the activity of the mass 
of vegetation is greatest at the periphery, where there is access to 
light. It is here that the flowers are produced. One can usually 
obtain flowers from the overhanging branches of trees by collecting 
from a boat in the rivers and streams. One may pass through a 
forest and find scattered on the ground the corollas of flowers borne 
far above and out of sight. The collector can obtain specimens of 
these only by felling the trees, and he often obtains a rich harvest 
by accompanying workers taking out logs of commercial timber or 
making clearings or cutting roads or trails. 

The interior of the rain forest is a solemn place. In the brightest 
day the sunlight does not penetrate and there is a subdued. diffused 
light that seems to emphasize the silence. Ordinarily one can walk 
without much difficulty in any direction. Although there are many 
large trees in the forest they are scattered and the spaces between 
are filled with trees of varying smaller sizes. Woody vines or hanas 
are abundant, leafless. and flowerless as they twine or struggle up- 
wards, finally lost in the roof of the forest. Some lianas are deeply 
cut into the bark of the trees they entwine, others dangle unsupported. 
tor long distances, the original support having been destroyed. The 
trees of the first class—the giants—trise straight and strong, the shafts 
passing upward out of sight in the mass of branches and foliage. 
As viewed from the outside one sees here and there the tops of these 
giants rising far above the general level of the forest. Trees of a 
second class pass up to form the general mass of the forest roof. Be- 
tween them there is a third class whose tops expand below the tops 
of the others and must be satisfied with a less amount of light. 
Below these are other classes successively more spindling, arrested in 
their growth by the competition of their more powerful neighbors. 
Some of these maintain a precarious existence, others give up the 
struggle and die. Dead trees, branches, and twigs soon rot away 
or are ground to powder by the wood ants. For this reason one 
never sees the accumulation of dead logs that is found in northern 
forests. The floor of the forest is comparatively clean. The sub- 
dued light permits but a small amount of low vegetation. There 
are normally a few species that have become adapted to the condi- 
tions prevailing here. Such are certain broad-leaved species of 
Ichnanthus and a few aroids and gesneraceous shrubs. There is a 
tendency for the larger trees to produce buttressed roots, that is, 
the base of the trunk expands into thin supporting slabs that radiate 
in all directions, giving greater stability to the tree. The mora 
tree (Dimorphandra mora), a common tree in the interior forests, 
has such buttresses prominently formed and often extending far up 
the trunk. 


FLORA OF BRITISH GUIANA—HITCHCOCK. 3805 


The species of the forest trees are not gregarious but are scattered 
here and there. Species of the mangrove formation are gregarious 
as are also such trees as the eta palm of the swampy areas. 

In the region between the Demerara and Essequibo Rivers trav- 
ersed by the railroad connecting Wismar and Rockstone there is a 
white sand scrub similar to that found in central Florida. The soil 
is mainly a white quartz sand. The vegetation consists of shrubs 
and small trees, mostly not over 12 to 15 feet tall, growing in scat- 
tered clusters or small thickets with areas of bare sand intermixed. 
The herbaceous plants are comparatively infrequent and incon- 
spicuous. 

In reviewing the lowland flora of British Guiana in comparison 
with that of the United States one notices the absence of some 
families, the small representation of some, and the large representa- 
tion of others. The grasses, sedges, and leguminous plants are 
present in about the same proportion as in the United States. Some 
families common in the United States are absent or represented by 
only a few species, such as the amentiferous trees (oaks, birches, 
hickories), Ranunculaceae, Rosaceae, Saxifragaceae, Menthaceae 
(Labiatae), Scrophulariaceae, Brassicaceae (Cruciferae), and 
Apiaceae (Umbelliferae). The Asteraceae (Compositae) the larg- 
est family in the United States is represented by proportionately 
greatly reduced numbers. Some familiar families, such as Euphor- 
biaceae, are found in British Guiana chiefly as trees. There are 
arboreous species of Solanum with flowers very similar to those of 
the common white potato (Solanum tuberosum). 

On the other hand, certain families sparsely represented in the 
cooler parts of the United States are found in greatly increased 
numbers, such as Rubiaceae, Lauraceae, and Sapotaceae. The great 
families Melastomaceae, Myrtaceae, Phoenicaceae (Palmae), and 
Piperaceae extend only into the warmer parts of the United States. 
Araceae, represented in the north by such puny plants as Jack-in- 
the-pulpit and skunk cabbage, are found as giants with leaf-blades 
2 to 4 feet long or as great climbers of the forest. The orchids do 
not reach their greatest development in the lowlands but are a con- 
spicuous feature of the vegetation around Roraima. 

It is hoped that botanists may investigate the interior, for there 
is no doubt that the central and southern parts of the colony will 
yield many interesting discoveries. 


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PLATE |. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Hitchcock. 


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PLATE 9. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Hitchcock. 


2. The eta palm, showing the fruit. 


1. The eta palm ( Mauritia flexuosa), common on the Hast 
Coast Water Conservancy 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Hitchcock. PLATE 10. 


1. The saman or rain tree (Samanea saman), a beautiful wide-spreading round-topped leguminous 
tree much grown in parks and along streets. 


2. View from Colony House, Penal Settlement. Two cabbage pals are in the foreground, the 
Mazaruni River in the background. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Hitchcock. ‘ PLATE II. 


1. A general view of the Penal Settlement. The Colony House with cabbage palms is at the right 


2. Bauxiteat Akyma. The covering of vegetation and earth has been removed jeaving the bauxite 
exposed. Bauxite, an oxide of aluminum, is a valuable mineral. 


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MILPA AGRICULTURE, A PRIMITIVE TROPICAL 
SYSTEM. 


By O. F. Coox. 


[With 15 plates.] 


It is usual to write of the Tropics as a world of teeming, inexhaus- 
tible fertility, a rich storehouse of food and raw materials waiting 
only to be drawn upon to support the ever-growing populations and 
industries of temperate regions. The reality is very far from this 
traditional idea. Tropical lands in general are neither more fertile 
nor more continuously productive than those of temperate regions. 
Though tropical temperatures make it possible for plants to grow 
for 12 months in the year instead of for the short summer season of 
temperate countries, continuous all-year production of foods or other 
important crops requires specialized, intensive systems of agriculture, 
which as yet have been developed and applied in only a few regions. 

Under the primitive system followed in most tropical countries, 
production not only is less continuous than in temperate regions, but 
may decline rapidly and even cease altogether. Regions that sup- 
ported large populations and were the scenes of great activity in 
former times are now uncultivated. Primitive civilizations destroyed 
the very basis of their own existence. Nations may pass without 
history, and yet leave marks of devastation. Instead of the natural 
resources of production being still untouched, most of the tropical 
world is far from a virgin state, a fact too often overlooked in tropical 
undertakings. The woody vegetation of. many tropical regions is 
“bush,” or secondary growth, instead of original virgin forest. Very 
old bush approximates the original forest, but it is possible to dis- 
tinguish many stages of reforestation and to estimate roughly the 
period that has elapsed since the land was used for agricultural pur- 
poses whether decades or centuries ago.’ 

1See Vegetation Affected by Agriculture in Central America, Bureau of Plant Industry 
Bulletin 145, 1909. Other features of primitive agriculture, reforestation and domestti- 
cation of plants have been treated in the following papers: Shade in Coffee Culture, U.S. 
Dept. of Agriculture, Div. Bot. Bul. 25, 1901 ; The American Origin of Agriculture, Popular 
Science Monthly, October, 1902; Food Plants of Ancient America, Smithsonian Report, 
1903; Cotton Culture in Guatemala, U. 8. Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 361, 1904; 
Change of Vegetation on South Texas Prairies, Bureau of Plant Industry Cir. 14, 1908; 
History of the Coconut Palm in America, Contr. U. S. National Herbarium 14, pt. 2, 


1910; Wild Wheat in Palestine, Bureau Piant Industry Bul. 274, 1913; Jewish Coloniza- 
tion in Palestine, Popular Science Monthly, November, 1913; Possibilities of Intensive 


307 


308 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
NATURE OF THE MILPA SYSTEM. 


The milpa system of agriculture is characterized by the planting 
of crops in temporary clearings. Instead of keeping the same land 
under cultivation, new clearings are cut and burned for planting, 
while clearings of previous years are abandoned to the wild vegeta- 
tion. Doubtless the utter simplicity of the system has tended to keep 
it from being recognized or studied as a factor of tropical life, 
though of world-wide distribution. The upland cultivation of rice 
among the primitive tribes of tropical Asia and Africa follows the 
same methods as cultivation of maize in the New World Tropics. 
Specialized, permanent systems of terrace agriculture were developed 
for the culture of maize in ancient Peru and in Central America, 
and similar systems of terracing are used for water cultivation of 
rice and other aquatic crops in eastern Asia, but in both hemis- 
pheres the more advanced nations are surrounded by primitive 
neighbors who have continued to use the milpa system. 

How little attention has been given to the relations of agriculture 
and tropical vegetation may be inferred from the fact that English 
and other European languages have had no recognized names for 
this primitive system of crop production which is general in hot 
countries, although such a term is necessary for the simplest purposes 
of definition and discussion. Milpa agriculture would be a con- 
venient designation, the native word “ milpa” having been adopted by 
the Spanish-speaking people of Central America in the sense of a 
maize field, or a clearing in the forest, cut and burned for planting 
maize. As an Aztec word, milpa is derived in Robelo’s Diccionario 
de Aztequismos from “milli,” a planting, and “pa,” in, with the 
remark: “ Now applied only to plantings of maize.” The vocabulary 
of Brinton’s Maya Chronicles includes a verb “ mulba,” “to congre- 
gate, to come together,” the possible connection being that all the 
people of a community usually work together in cutting and 
especially in planting a milpa. “ Planting-bees,” as we would say, are 
a regular part of the system.? 

Milpa agriculture appears well adapted to the needs of very primi- 
tive peoples, since only a minimum of labor and equipment is re- 
quired. The ax or the cutlass is the only tool that is necessary. 
Tribes who did not have effective cutting implements felled or 


Agriculture in Tropical America, Proc. Second Pan-American Scientific Congress, Vol. III, 
pp. 573-579, 1915-16 ; Agriculture and Native Vegetation in Peru, Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci. 
VI, No. 11, 1916; Staircase Farms of the Ancients, National Geographic Magazine, 39, 474, 
1916; Domestication of Animals in Peru, Journal of Heredity, 10: 176, 1919; Foot-Plow 
Agriculture in Peru, Smithsonian Report, pp. 487-491, 1918. 

2The word that corresponds to milpa in Peru and neighboring countries of South 
America is “ chacra,” but this is applied also to lands that are terraced and tilled con- 
tinuously in the higher valleys. Many agricultural terms in the Quichua language seem to 
be derivatives or cognates of chacra, such as ‘“‘chakhoni,”’ to clear land; ‘‘ chakhoska,” 
cleared land; “ chuquini,” to plant seed; “‘ chacmani,” to cultivate; ‘‘ chacuni,” to ridge 
or hill the plants; and ‘‘ chacchuni,” to irrigate. 


MILPA AGRICULTURE—COOK. 309 


girdled the trees by building fires around them. According to 
Du Pratz the Indians of Louisiana cut away the charcoal with their 
stone axes to hasten the action of fire in burning through the tree 
trunks. The method of clearing land among the Tarahumare In- 
dians, a primitive tribe living in the mountains of northwestern 
Mexico, is described as follows: 

On a level place in the forest where the humus is rich and generally near 
some stream, the Indian will take away a strip of bark 2 to 3 feet broad from 
the trunks of all the pine trees over a tract of a few or perhaps 20 acres or 
more. Then, after two or three years, the pines are, of course, completely 
dried up. They are now cut down and during the driest season when there, 
perhaps, has not been any rain for 9 to 10 months, the whole mass of trunks 
and broken branches are set on fire and burned to ashes. Some of the trees 
that stand nearest to this giant fire are, of course, destroyed, but no forest 
fires arise.* 

Though the cutting and burning of a tract of tangled tropical 
forest is hard work, even with steel tools, other forms of agricultural 
labor are avoided by the milpa system. If a “good burn” is se- 
cured the soil is left clean and in excellent condition. Plowing, 
hoeing, and weeding are unnecessary. Planting still is done in Cen- 
tral America with a charred stick. Some of the Indians of Guate- 
mala consider it unlucky even to walk through a corn field while the 
plants are growing. The ears are gathered as needed, and the stalks 
left standing in the field. 

_ In typical milpa agriculture no labor is given to the working of 
the soil, either before or after planting. The crop simply is planted 
and allowed to grow. In some regions the system is varied by pull- 
ing or hoeing out weeds. The land also may be cleared once or twice 
with hoes or cutlasses for planting a second or a third crop before 
the field is abandoned to the growth of “bush.” In West Africa 
new forest clearings are planted with rice. This ripens in a few 
weeks and is followed by cassava, which grows through the next 
season. In the so-called “jum” cultivation of Assam, forest clear- 
ings are said to be planted for two years and then abandoned for 
eight or nine years, while the jungle grows again. Even European 
settlers in the Tropics usually follow the native method of clearing 
the land by cutting and burning, in spite of the fact that large 
amounts of valuable leaf litter and humus may be destroyed. (PI. 
1, fig. 1; pl. 2. fig. 2.) 


EFFECTS OF REPEATED CLEARING. 


The rapid renewal of the jungle in forest clearings gives a vivid 
impression of exuberance that many travelers and archeologists 


8 See Hartmann, C. W., 1897, The Indians of Northwestern Mexico, Congres International 
des Americanistes, 10: 118. 


12573°—21——21 


810 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


have remarked, while few have taken account of the milpa system. 
Repeated burning of the forest for agricultural purposes produces 
an effect entirely different from the clearing for purposes of study 
of a group of forest-covered ruins, like those of Palenque. The 
woody growth is restored less rapidly after each agricultural clear- 
ing, and a state of complete denudation and exhaustion of the soil 
may be reached if the burnings continue. A region that has been 
exploited thoroughly by the milpa system may require many decades, 
and even centuries, before the fertility of the soil is fully restored. 

In a virgin-forest clearing the wild vegetation may begin to re- 
assert itself even in advance of the maturity of the crop. Sprouts 
may come up from the stumps or from plants with underground 
rootstocks that are not killed by the fire and rank weeds appear. 
With a moist climate and a rich soil the growth of woody plants 
may be sufficient in a few months to permit the same land to be 
burned and planted again in the second or third year, but this is 
true only of clearings in old or virgin forest. ‘A longer period of 
renewal is required after the second burning, before there is enough 
“bush” to burn again, and the interval lengthens gradually to the 
fifth, seventh, or tenth year, depending upon the soil and other local 
conditions, but also very largely upon the length of time that the 
district has been occupied since the original forest growth was de- 
stroyed. 

That the “bush” takes longer to renew itself after each successive 
cutting and burning means, of course, that the soil is becoming less 
fertile. The genuine forest growth gives place to other plants that 
are adapted to the more open and exposed conditions, of the burnt- 
over lands, and eventually some of the large perennial grasses become 
established. Though grass burns readily in the dry season, the roots 
and rootstocks are not injured and continue to occupy the soil to the 
exclusion of other plants. The method of cutting and burning serves 
to clear land of woody vegetation, but. becomes ineffective when the 
land is occupied with grasses that resist fire. Accumulations of dry 
grass make fires hot enough to destroy seedlings of other plants, or 
even to kill large trees when the heat is carried by wind. 

The self-limiting character of milpa agriculture, does not, result 
solely from burning the clearings that have been cut for planting, 
but also from the fire spreading to neighboring bush or grass lands. 
Where only 5 or 10 acres have been cut 100 or 1,000 acres may be 
burned over. The Tarahumare Indians, of northwestern Mexico, 
according to Hartmann, keep up a.custom of burning off all the grass 
during the dry season from April to June in the belief that the smoke 
clouds produce rain, “wherefore it becomes almost impossible to 
travel in the mountains during that time of the year, there being no 


———————<——— 


MILPA AGRICULTURE—COOK. 311 


pasture to be found for the saddle and pack animals. Fires are seen 
continually burning day and night all over the mountains up to the 
highest crest, leaving the stony ground blackened and barren, but the 
forests stand green.” 

With fires sweeping over the country at intervals of a year or two, 
the grasslands not only are maintained, but may even encroach upon 
adjacent tracts of woody vegetation from the windward side. The 
wider the area of grasslands the more they tend to increase through 
the agency of fire, until the whole district is denuded, or forests re- 
main only in places that are inaccessible to fire oat grass does 
not grow, as on rocks, loose sand, or flooded areas along the streams. 
When the process of denudation has gone so far that land for milpas 
can no longer be cleared and planted by the native. methods the 
period of agricultural occupation is at an end. Thus the milpa sys- 
tem carries with it the agency of its own destruction in-producing the 
grasslands that are not amenable to, the kind of cultivation that the 
system provides, and the process tends to accelerate as the limit is 
approached. As long as a district is occupied by an agricultural 
population using the milpa system the danger of fire remains. 

The regular use of grasslands for agricultural purposes is confined 
to temperate regions and to high altitudes in the Tropics. Plowing or 
some equivalent operation must be performed in order to uproot, 
bury, or otherwise destroy the grasses before crops can be planted. 
But plows and harrows are worked with draft animals, which primi- 
tive tribes do not have. 

Grasslands are subdued by hand labor in a few overpopulated 
tropical regions., A nearly continuous cultivation is maintained in 
some of the mountain districts of Haiti where grass and weeds are 
dug out with cutlasses. The result is a more rapid and complete 
denudation of the land, and a restricted production of food must be 
expected. if better systems are not introduced. Another result is 
heavier floods and land slides that destroy. agricultural lands in the 
lower valleys... (Pl. 13, fig. 2.) 

A more primitive ad yet. distinctly specialized system of cultiva- 
tion of grasslands is reported by Chalmers, and Gill among the 
natives of southeastern New Guinea. 

The plantations are well cared for. Wecame upon a potatoe of men in the 
bush preparing the soil for planting. The long grass had been burnt off. Now, 
for the digging up of the hard ground. Several men stood in a row, each pro- 
vided with a sharp-pointed strong stake. These are driven into the soil in 
unison; in another second the hard clods are flying upward all along the line, 
reminding one of the perfect regularity with which a man-of-war’s crew dig 


into the water. These men went on with their employment without paying the 
slightest, heed to. us’ strangers.* 


4Chalmers, J., and Gill, W. W., 1885, Work and Adventure in New Guinea, p. 295. 


312 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 
MIGRATION TO NEW LANDS. 


The nearest approaches to plowing by native methods in America 
were made in Peru and in Central America, but in both regions 
tillage agriculture appears to have been confined to the high plateaus, 
and is not known to have extended to the tropical lowlands. Most 
of the natives of America had not advanced beyond the milpa stage. 
Except in Peru, the agricultural Indians of America had no beasts 
of burden, and even the llama was not used as a draft animal to 
assist in the cultivation of the land. The permanent terrace agri- 
culture of the maize belt of Peru and the still more laborious turf- 
land cultivation of the high-altitude potato belt are examples of 
specialized systems that replaced milpa agriculture in limited areas. 
Tillage and the use of fertilizers were regularly practiced in Peru, 
as well as the reclamation of arid valleys by irrigation through long 
canals very difficult to construct in precipitous mountain valleys. 
Large areas of permanently productive artificial lands were made by 
terracing, filling, and covering the surface with a thick layer of 
fertile soil. The terrace system was applied both to steep slopes and 
to the bottoms of the valleys, with the stream beds straightened, nar- 
rowed, and walled in. 

Instead of improving their methods and making their agriculture 
more intensive by tillage, cultivation, guano, irrigation, and terrac- 
ing, as practiced in ancient Peru, the Indians of Central America 
used the milpa system more extensively, and this plan is still followed. 
People who have exhausted neighboring lands go farther out until 
they find good soil for milpas, sometimes 50 miles or more from their 
ancestral villages, and carry the crops home on their backs. More 
traveling is done instead of more farm labor, and the people are 
inured to the carrying of heavy loads, in which they show remarkable 
strength and endurance. To bring in the harvest from the distant 
milpa may require several trips by the whole family. Forty man 
loads of maize were considered as a normal supply for a family, 
according to Bishop Landa, whe wrote of the Mayas of Yucatan 
about 1566. The mecapal, a woven band or strip of leather across 
the forehead to support the load on the back, is a characteristic 
feature of this long-distance milpa agriculture. Even a young child 
wears his little mecapal and carries a small bag of corn. 

Although agriculture is always considered a settled existence, in 
comparison with hunting or pastoral life, milpa agriculture is in a 
sense nomadic, from the need of moving about in order to find lands 
suitable for planting. Like wandering shepherds, the same tribe 
might come back after decades or centuries to reoccupy a region that 
their forefathers had deforested and abandoned. Thus a succession 
of agricultural occupations is indicated in some districts in Central 


SS  ———S ss  - 


MILPA: AGRICULTURE—COOK. © 818 


America, corresponding to the native traditions of tribal wander- 
ings for many centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Though 
the dated inscriptions that archeologists have deciphered on the 
statues and monuments of Central America go back only a little be- 
yond the Christian era, the Mayas had an exact system of chronology 
with a starting point about 4,500 years before the Spanish conquest. 


LIMITS OF POPULATION UNDER THE MILPA SYSTEM. 


Only a small, scattered population can secure permanent support 
from the milpa system of agriculture. As any particular piece of 
land can be expected to produce crops of corn only at intervals of 
‘several years, each family requires a large acreage. Among the coffee 
planters of eastern Guatemala, in a forested mountain country with 
many fertile valleys, the carrying capacity of the land for Indian 
laborers is estimated on the basis of 100 to 200 acres per family. In 
a partially denuded or improverished country even five hundred or a 
thousand acres per family might be required for a permanent food 
supply. 

The natives of West Africa always prefer to cut the “big bush,” 
knowing that the forest soil is more fertile. “ Young bush” is cut 
when older growth is not accessible. The zone of grass-covered “ old 
fields” around an African village is continually widened, and when 
there is no more forest within reach the village is moved to an un- 
occupied district, if such can be found. The grassy “ fields” persist 
long after the other signs of human habitation have disappeared. 

The same preference for the new clearings in old forest is found 
among the natives of lowland districts in Central America, but in 
the mountains of eastern Guatemala the first crop of maize after an 
old forest has been cut may not be as large as the next crop on the 
same land, when it is cleared again after the first period of secondary 
growth. In the rainy climate of the mountain districts it may not be 
easy to get a “good burn” sufficient to kill the tree roots and clear 
ground thoroughly. In some seasons the brush remains too wet to 
burn and then there is danger of famine. Not to lose a possible 
chance that dry weather may come late in the season the Indians 
plant their milpas and burn them afterward, if possible. In moist 
ground the seeds or young seedlings are not killed by the fire sweep- 
ing over them, but usually only a partial crop is secured by this ex- 
pedient, even where the maize is cared for by weeding and. cutting 
out the tree sprouts. In wet years the coffee planters find. it. neces- 
sary to import maize from New Orleans to feed the native popula- 
tion, though the Indians still suffer because the tortillas made from 
the foreign grain are bitter and unwholesome, quite different from 
the excellent native product. 


314 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Such years of famine would tend naturally to keep. a primitive 
people from occupying a very humid district unless driven by pres- 
sure of population or other necessity, or unless there were a system of 
storehouses for feeding the» people in famine years, as in’ ancient 
Peru. The chief danger in Peru was from unseasonable frosts in the 
high altitudes, but at ordinary elevations either too much rain or too 
little would represent a limiting factor, tending to destroy or drive 
out a primitive people that had ventured beyond the margin of a 
safe existence or depleted the resources of its native district. 

If the population remains in a district after all the lands have 
been, cut oyer, resort must be had to repeated clearing of the same 
lands as soon as'the “ bush” is large enough to burn, without waiting 
for trees. to grow and new soil to be formed. And since the forest 
growth and the fertility of the soil are renewed more slowly after 
each burning, the adverse effects tend to be multiplied.. Once the bal- 
ance 1s. upset, so that the natural agencies for renewal of the soil do 
not have time to work, milpa agriculture becomes an actively de- 
structive system. How often the land may be cleared, or how many 
times the woody growth will renew itself, must be Pus by the 
local: conditions of soil and climate, mes a definite limit is reached 
when the woody vegetation ceases to grow and the land becomes oc- 
cupied by grasses. The larger the population the more complete 
and. extensive is the agricultural catastrophe which must ensue 
when.a people who depend entirely upon the milpa system have ex- 
hausted. their resources of production. 


CEA thes OF POPULATION. 


Primitive tropical peoples may live either in villages or sates 
communal houses or the families may be widely scattered over the 
land.’ Even among the Maya peoples of Central America there were 
tribes like the Kekchis of eastern Guatemala who seem originally to 
have had no villages until assembled by the Spanish missionaries 
for religious control and instruction. The fact that all the so-called 
“Old Empire” cities of the Mayas in Central America have been found 
buried in deep forests shows what'the country was like before. it was 
occupied by the builders of the ruins. But wide areas of the Maya 
country must have been: visosby when there were people to build 
such cities. 

The more centralized a cchoantnok ees beamed the more definite and 
obvious are the effects of its agricultural activities. The lands im- 
mediately surrounding large Indian towns: in» Central America at 
the present time are not merely deforested after the manner of clear- 
‘ings for milpas, but are completely denuded, in order to furnish fuel 
for the towns. Firewood and charcoal for many of the towns are 


/') MILPA AGRICULTURE—COOK, 315 


carried on the backs of men for 2 or'3 leagues, and sometimes for 
much greater distances. Lands suitable for farming have to be 
sought much farther away, often. at a range of 20 or 30 miles. In- 
dians from San Pedro Carcha near Coban may plant milpas in the 
district between Senahu and Cajabon and carry corn home on their 
backs, 50 or-60 miles. 

' The tendency is, of course, for people who raise their crops too 
many miles from the home settlement to spend more time at their 
milpas and carry back less of their corn. Thus an old center is 
likely to lose its population gradually after the circle of exhausted 
land becomes too wide, or the people may migrate together to a new 
district. Native villages in West Africa usually occupy the same 
site for only a decade or two. With nothing in the way of permanent 
buildings or other improvements to interfere, a new location is sought 
as soon as all the forest has been cut within a convenient radius of 
2 or 3 miles. Much larger areas of denudation were formed, no 
doubt, by people who advanced further in civilization and made 
permanent investments of labor in the building of stone houses, 
temples, and monuments, as in Central America. But considering 
that there were no beasts of burden in Central America, and very 
little in the way of navigable rivers, so that transportation was 
limited to human carriers, centers of population could hardly have 
been maintained from lands that were more than 20 or 30 miles 
away. Some families might go farther out to “make milpas” and 
carry in their corn, so as to live in town for a part of the time, but 
large centers would be impracticable on a GuRS of milpa agriculture 
and man-back transportation. 

In other parts of the world where beasts of burden were used, boats 
on rivers, or ships on the sea, supplies could be drawn from greater 
distances, huridreds of miles, if necessary, so that larger and more 
permanent centers of population could be supported, like the ancient 
cities of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Agri- 
cultural decay and reduced production at home were made good tem- 
porarily by extending the range of commerce, but with ever-increas- 
ing difficulty and eventually disaster. 

The general tendency of civilization is to develop large centers of 
population without corresponding improvement of food supplies, so 
that practical limits are reached. Urban ideas and interests are 
dominant, industrial and commercial activities are preferred, and 
agriculture remains in the background. As more people are drawn 
into cities, supplies have to be brought from greater distances, requir- 
ing more labor and more complex and delicate economic adjustments. 

With the arts of transportation still more improved, our modern 
centers of industrial activity have the entire world in tribute and are 


316 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


dependent upon the agriculture of people who live thousands of miles 
away, on other sides of the globe. Facilities of communication make 
the agricultural problem universal, though production still is limited 
by the same factors as in primitive times. Forests and soils continue 
to be depleted. Production is not maintained indefinitely on the 
same lands, but new regions are opened and exploited. Our agri- 
culture must, still be described as predatory and temporary, rather 
than as constructive and permanent. Unnecessary transportation 
wastes labor and other productive resources in civilized countries no 
less than among the primitive people who find themselves compelled 
to move to, new lands when old locations become denuded and grass- 
grown. 

The removal of population from a denuded district might be 
gradual, or there might be a general withdrawal to a new settlement 
in the midst of fertile lands and with an abundance of fuel close at 
hand. Thus it is not difficult to understand that a center of popula- 
tion in one period might a little later be completely abandoned and 
allowed to grow up again to forests. The Indians of Central 
America are extremely conservative, stationary people, who would 
resist any change as long as possible, but once such a movement had 
definitely begun the tendency would be for the whole population to 
go, so as to maintain a strong community. From this point of view 
the traditions of prehistoric migrations and colonization of new dis- 
tricts do not seem strange or unreasonable. 

Tn recent centuries, during the period of exploitation by Europeans, 
the normal relations between the native system of agriculture and its 
environment have been altered in many ways. Populations have 
often been restricted, reduced, or compelled to move by wars, political 
disturbances, or economic changes, and the agricultural systems of 
many districts have been altered profoundly by the introduction of 
beasts of burden and grazing animals. Grass lands that were useless 
before became available as pastures. (See pl. 18, fig. 1.) In some 
districts grazing may reduce fires and thus assist reforestation, but in 
the tablelands of Guatemala the danger of erosion seems to have been 
increased by close grazing. (See pl. 12.) 


PRECAUTIONS AGAINST THE SPREAD OF FIRES, 


Primitive peoples would hardly be aware of the limitations of the 
milpa system or make conscious efforts to maintain a balance with 
the natural conditions to insure a food supply for future generations. 
Within its own sphere of influence each family chooses annually the 
most promising place for its cornfield, with little or no regard to the 
outlook for subsequent years. To foresee the ultimate effects of this 
policy from the standpoint of the community and enforce measures 


Gi 
% 
« 
H 
: 
; 
" 


MILPA AGRICULTURE—COOK. 817 


of protection implies a rather advanced state of social organization, 
something that might correspond to the colonizing policy of the 
Incas of Peru, in withdrawing people from congested districts and 
sending them to unoccupied regions. 

A precaution observed at the present day by some of the Indians 
of eastern Guatemala may: have been practiced more widely in 
ancient times. In passing through the district between Cajabon and 
Lanquin, in the valley of the Cajabon River, in May, 1914, when 
farm-burning operations were in progress, it was noticed that a 
method of fire protection had been applied. Many of the clearings 
were surrounded by barriers made by removing all the branches and 
dry leaves from the ground along a strip 2 or 3 rods wide, which 
serves to stop the fire at the border of the clearing instead of allow- 
ing it to sweep over the neighboring lands. 

The use of this expedient by the ancient Mayas would have enabled 
them to lengthen the period of agricultural occupation beyond what 
might have been possible under the simplest forms of milpa agricul- 
ture. According to Morley, who has deciphered the date signs on 
many of the ancient monuments, the period of occupation of some 
of the Maya cities appears to have extended over nearly four cen- 
turies, though others seem to have been inhabited for only a few de- 
cades. The nature of the soil is, of course, a primary factor in de- 
termining how long the land can be cultivated by any system of 
agriculture, but the making of fire-stops around the clearings of each 
year undoubtedly would conserve the fertility of the country and 
enable it to support a larger population for a longer period. 

That other expedients may have been used by the ancient Mayas is 
hardly to be denied in the present state of knowledge. Several 
rather specialized systems of agriculture were developed in the 
neighboring mountains and plateau regions, where languages of the 
Maya stock are still spoken. Different forms of ancient agricul- 
tural terraces are found in several districts in Guatemala and south- 
ern Mexico, none as carefully constructed as those of Peru, but 
sometimes covering large areas, as in the region of Comitin and 
Ocosingo in southern Mexico. Terraces, with retaining walls of 
rather rude stonework, are found in many of the mountain valleys 
in eastern Guatemala, usually at altitudes of 2,000 to 3,000 feet, but 
some of them as low as 700 feet. In the eastern valleys of Peru 
most of the terraces are at altitudes between 12,000 and 6,000 feet, 
with little or no terracing below 5,000 feet. 

Though the agricultural period might be lengthened for several 
generations by using the fire-stops, the natural limitations of the 
milpa system would be reached eventually. Population would need 
to be restricted as well as fires if a permanent balance were to be 


318 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


maintained. More people would mean greater pressure for frequent 
clearing and planting of the land. Areas that became too grassy for 
cultivation would be considered worthless, and probably would not 
be protected against the fire. There would be a gradual extension of 
the grass-covered areas and a corresponding reduction of the lands 
that could be cleared and planted. Even cultivated lands and slopes 
that have been improved by a regular system of terracing are invaded 
by a coarse bunch grass (Z'picampes) in the high plateaus of Gua- 
temala (pl. 15, fig. 2.) 


PERIODS OF REFORESTATION. 


After a district has been abandoned so that the woody vegetation 
is allowed to grow and grass fires become less frequent, there is a 
gradual return to forest conditions, though the advance of the woody 
vegetation into a grass-covered area is a slow process and subject to 
frequent setbacks as long as people remain to start fires. But even 
the recurrence of fires may not keep the forest from making slow, 
gradual gains at the expense of the grasses. Some kinds of trees 
have thick, nonconducting, slow-burning bark or other protection 
against fire, and are able to compete with the grass and finally to 
overcome it. The fires kill most of the young trees, but a few sur- 
vive, with accidental protection of stones or ant hills. The grass is 
thinner around the trees and the fires gradually become less de- 
structive. Finally, when there are enough trees to shade out the 
grass, genuine forest conditions are reestablished (pl. 14, fig. 2). 

In many parts of Central America it is difficult to find any 
primeval forests or any that are old enough to represent the original 
condition before clearing began.. The forests that are found in 
swamps, deserts, and rocky, precipitous places, too rough for clear- 
ing.and planting by the native methods, may represent, the only 
original growth. Even places that are difficult of access may be 
drawn upon for supplies of firewood or for making charcoal. That 
there are any large areas of truly virgin forest growth in Central 
America has still to be shown. Even in the rainiest districts of the 
eastern lowlands of Costa, Rica the clearing of heavy forests for 
banana, plantations has resulted in the discovery of abundant pre- 
historic remains. | 

During the long era of prehistoric development of agriculture and 
civilization in tropical America many periods of agricultural occu- 
pation may have alternated with. periods of abandonment. and re- 
forestation, which would account for the presence of different kinds 
of ancient pottery and stonework in the same districts. (PI. 9, fig. 1; 
pl. 10, fig. 1.) Though the modern Indians of eastern Guatemala are 
much afraid of caves, the ancient inhabitants used them generally as 


MILPA AGRIGULTURE—COOK. 319 


burial places, if not as dwellings, and. even constructed artificial caves 
or tumuli. Excavation of an artificial mound of earth on the Sepacuite 
coffee estate in a heavily forested district between Senahu and Caja- 
bon revealed ‘a core of rude stonework, roofed with large rocks. (PI. 8, 
fig. 1.) This form of construction is entirely different from other 
ancient walls in the same district, which are made of thin, flat stones, 
not shaped artificially, though carefully laid together. The present 
Indians refuse to credit the idea that the walls were built by ancient 
inhabitants of the country and ask, “ Where could anybody find so 
many flat stones?” ,.Their belief: is that these ancient buildings, 
now buried deep in the forest were the original habitations of man- 
kind, prepared in advance by the Creator, “When man was. born, 
when daylight broke over the earth.” 

The time needed to complete the process of reforestation in a 
district that has been denuded must depend, as in denudation, very 
largely upon the local conditions of climate, soil, and feier ea. 
Several decades are required for the growth and production of seed 
by the pioneer individuals, the pines, oaks, or other fire-resistant 
types, the first invaders of the grasslands, and other decades for 
the more abundant trees that must develop before the growth be- 
comes dense enough to exterminate the grass and permit the succes- 
sion of genuine forest types to begin. Many kinds of trees that are 
abundant in the new forests, such as Cecropia, Castilla, Heliocarpus, 
Ochroma, and Attalea, are only vanguard species and gradually give 
place to:the more permanent types of slow-growing hardwood trees. 
Still more time is required for the flora of the undergrowth and 
the fauna of the humus layer of the soil to be fully restored after 
the necessary forest conditions have been established. ) 

By taking account of the succession of types of trees and piles 
biological foams it is possible to recognize the stage of develop- 
ment that any particular woodland may have reached, or even: to 
gain an idea of the approximate age of a, forest. ae the open 
grasslands to the dense tropical forest, with its slow- -erowing hard- 
wood trees, is obviously a long sequence of biological events. A 
hundred years. would be entirely insufficient, and 200 probably not 
enough, under the most favorable Lhe ane Even after 5 or 10 
Aue the effects of previous denudations might still be trace- 
able by sufficient study of a forest and what it contains. : 


-\MAIZE PLANTINGS IN UNCUT BUSH. 


Another modification of the milpa system that avoids or defers 
the danger of grass invasion is applicable to districts that have a 
long dry season. It was observed in northwestern Guatemala, in the 
district of Nenton, Department of Huehuetenango, in May, 1906, and 


820 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


seems likely to have been used more generally in former times, when 
steel tools were not available. 

Advantage is taken of the fact that. bush lands can be burned over, 
even without cutting, if the vegetation becomes sufficiently dry at 
the end of the hot season. The dead bushes and small trees that 
remain standing do not interfere with planting, nor with the growth 
of the crop. With the first rains that moisten the surface soil, the 
maize plants shoot up rapidly and are well grown before the sur- 
viving trees or bushes are able to put out leaves or new sprouts from 
the roots. As the woody vegetation is dormant at the end of the 
dry season, the roots are not likely to be killed and the new sprouts 
that are sent up during the rainy season are sufficient to shade the 
ground and exclude the dangerous grasses. 

The hot valleys and parched lowlands where the uncut bush gets 
dry enough to burn are not places that would be considered very 
desirable for human habitation, but to avoid the labor of bush- 
cutting would be a very important consideration with primitive peo- 
ple. Probably the same system would be applicable in Yucatan, and 
a passage in Norman’s Rambles in Yucatan states that burning was 
“the only preparation that the soil received prior to sowing it.” 
This related to the country between Merida and Campechy, which 
Norman visited in April, 1842. 

Though planting in uncut bush is even simpler and easier than 
the regular milpa agriculture, it may not be more primitive, since 
the method would not be applicable to orginal forests, but only to 
secondary growth. It may be significant in this connection that the 
southern cities of the Mayas in Honduras and Guatemala, in the 
regions of heavier forests, were older than the cities of Yucatan. 


ARTIFICIAL GRASSLANDS AND DESERTS. 


That the agricultural operations of primitive man may change com- 
pletely the character of the wild vegetation and turn a dense tropical 
forest into an open grassland or a desert is a fact not yet appreciated 
adequately by students either of plant life or of human progress 
toward civilization. The biological considerations indicate that in 
its primal, prehuman condition the tropical and subtropical world 
had a general forest covering, and that tropical grasslands are essen- 
tially artificial. é 

Grasses do not exist. naturally in lowland tropical forests, being 
intolerant of shade and unable to compete successfully with the woody 
vegetation. Apart from special local conditions of salty soil, peri- 
odic floods, or fires that in some regions are kindled rather frequently 
by lightning, there is nothing to keep the woody vegetation from in- 
vading and becoming established in any region where the rainfall is 


: 
} 
| 
: 


MILPA AGRICULTURE—COOK. 321 


sufficient for grasses. Trees, shrubs, and many perennial plants have 
deeper roots than the grasses and are more resistant under desert con- 
ditions. Many regions too dry for grasses support a growth of 
“scrub” or open forest. With the menace of fire removed and with 
time enough, the forest always becomes dominant and eventually 
drives out the grasses entirely, except from very rocky or broken 
country. The small annual grasses that spring up in the short rainy 
season of deserts are not to be confused with the perennial grasses of 
more humid regions. 


PASTORAL PERIODS SECONDARY. 


In view of the biological limitations of the grassland type of vege- 
tation, wide areas of open country in tropical and subtropical regions 
should be considered as generally resulting from previous agricul- 
tural occupation. In the Old World as well as in the New, agricul- 
tural activity traces back to the prehistoric period, as shown by the 
wide distribution of agricultural terraces and megalithic stonework 
from the Malay region and southern Arabia to the British Isles. 
Pastoral Semites overran decaying oriental civilizations in early 
times, much as Rome was submerged in later centuries by the northern 
barbarians. 

All through the history of China we meet with the same old tale, such as the 
experiences of Egypt, Syria, and Persia have made familiar, of a never-ending 
conflict between the desert and the sown. * * * China is the tilled land, the 
home of a settled agricultural and commercial people, with farms and villages 
and market towns, rich with cornfields, orchards, rice fields, planted with sugar 
cane, cotton, and mulberry, whose rivers and roads swarm with traffic and the 
busy competition of peaceful industry and trade. But all through their long 
history this people has been engaged with varying fortune in an unending strug- 
gle with the wandering, pastoral tribes beyond the borders of cultivation; 
* * ¥*, These people gather as the clouds gather and burst as the clouds break 
in rain, but they have no enduring form or substance. From first to last they 
are combinations of the same wild, elemental, lawless, tent-dwelling wanderers, 
strong with the animal strength of a free, open-air life, who follow their flocks 
and herds wherever the grass is sweet and the water sufficient, but never settle 
down in fixed habitations anywhere to learn habits of industry * * *,5 

In the opening chapters of the Dawn of History, Myers also has 
gone further than most historians in recognizing that higher types 
of agriculture or of civilization are not likely to have been developed 
by pastoral peoples, but does not consider that the pastoral state may 
be a secondary development, consequent upon the formation of grass- 
lands and the domestication of animals in earlier agricultural periods. 
Many of the regions that have been given over to the nomads in 
historic times are known to have been the seats of former agricultural 


5 Clennell, W. J., 1917, The Historical Development of Religion in China, pp. 161-163. 


322 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


populations. « The rich, luxuriant grasslands of the Russian steppes, 
the prairies of our Western States, the South American pampas, 
and the open country of tropical Africa probably do not represent 
original conditions.® 

Tt seems more likely that the first’ domestication of animals was 
accomplished by settled agricultural people like the Peruvians or the 
ancient Egyptians and Chaldeans of the Old World than that 
wandering herdsmen should have begun the cultivation of plants. 
Pastoral habits have been adopted in recent centuries by tribes of 
Indians both in North and in South America, using domesticated 
animals brought by settlers from Europe. Among our western 
Indians horses, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens haye been 
adopted before taking up the culture. of wheat.or other; European 
plants, the reason being no doubt that crops require more labor 
than the herding of animals. In the highlands of Guatemala, as 
among the Navahos of New Mexico, many: thousands of sheep are 
kept by the Indians, and wool is spun and woven by primitive native 
methods that were applied in former times to cotton. With horses 
to ride some tribes that had lived previously by agriculture adopted a 
still more nomadic existence, following the buffalo herds. 

Before the arrival of De areperes animal husbandry was prac- 
ticed in America only in the southern Andes, by the people who had 
the most specialized and intensive systems a irrigation and terrace 
agriculture, as well as the largest series of cultivated plants. 
(Pl. 7, fig. 1.) The Peruvian agriculture covered the entire range 
of production from tropical eastern valleys to the upper limits of 
potatoes and other Andean crops, which are grown in some valleys at 
altitudes of more than 14,000 feet. But still higher slopes and 
plateau districts are denuded and grass grown, and there the flocks 
of llamas and alpacas are tended and sheared, like sheep and long- 
haired goats in. Mediterranean countries, with the male lamas 
serving also as beasts of burden, like camels or donkeys. 

In thus combining animal industry with irrigation and terrace 
farming the agriculture of the ancient Peruvians was closely parallel 
to that of the early dynastic period of Egypt, and to the system in- 
troduced by the Sumerians into the Persian Gulf region. In America 
many stages of development can be traced, leading up to the Peru- 
vian agriculture, whereas in the ancient seats of Old World civiliza- 
tion agriculture appears abruptly, with no provenience recognized. 
If Egypt and Chaldea represent the. beginnings, as usually sup- 
posed, agriculture in the Old World would seem to have reached 
all at once the highest, most specialized stage of development, with- 

® Busse, W., 1908, Die Periodischen Grasbraende im Tropischen Afrika, ihr Einfluss auf 


die Vegetation und ihre Bedeutung fuer die Landeskultur, Mitthi, aus den Deutschen 
Schutzgebieten, 21: 2. 


MILPA '‘AGRICULTURE—COOK. . 323 


out passing through the stages represented by the more primitive 
agricultural civilizations of tropical America. 

But the effects of agriculture can be considered apart from the 
question of origin. Budge, Breasted, and other archeologists now 
recognize that originally the Nile Valley, with its annual floods, was 
a succession of well-nigh tropical jungles and swamps, inhabited by 
elephants, hippopotami, and crocodiles, and the Valley of the Hu- 
phrates seems not less likely to have been wooded. Certainly south- 
ern Arabia and Palestine were not naturally treeless, nor other coun- 
tries around the Mediterranean. Since the milpa method of cutting 


and burning is the only way of clearing’ woodland for agricultural 


purposes among primitive people, it may be supposed to have been 
used in western Asia and the Mediterranean region, as in other parts 
of the world, until the forests were exterminated. A chronic scarcity 
of timber in Mediterranean countries during the historical period 
may be considered as a normal consequence of earlier agricultural 
occupation, in the prehistoric age. 


PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY SYSTEMS. 


Milpa agriculture as a system stands as in contrast with tillage 
agriculture, in which plows or other implements are used to break 
the land before planting and crops are cultivated during the period 
of growth. From our standpoint of familiarity with tillage methods 
the milpa system appears not only temporary but highly destructive 
and self-limiting, since the growth of grasses may render the land 
useless in a few decades. Even the best land can be used only at 
intervals, as long as dependence is placed entirely on fire as a means 
of clearing the soil for planting. With milpa agriculture the ques- 
tion of permanence hinges entirely on whether there are many people 
or only a few. Milpa agriculture is a permanent system if the in- 
tervals between successive clearings of the same land are very long 
and the forest has time to restore the soil to its original condition. A 
few people can live indefinitely in the same region, but limits are 
reached as civilization advances. 

The essential inferiority of the milpa system lies not so much in 
its lack of permanence, since this would be secured if a proper bal- 
ance of the population were maintained, but in the fact that the 
carrying capacity of any region must remain very small, only a fifth 
to a tenth part of the land being planted at the same time, even 
with a well-organized milpa system. Tillage methods have made it 
possible for the more progressive nations to maintain larger and 
more centralized populations and develop higher forms of civiliza- 
tion. Nevertheless, it is not to be inferred that tillage agriculture 
is essentially permanent, or that it is preferable to milpa agriculture 


324 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


under all circumstances. Only a few regions of exceptional natural 
fertility afford illustrations of permanent tillage agriculture, like the 
slopes of ‘Vesuvius, the Valley of the Nile, and the plain of Hauran, 
east of the Jordan, where a loose volcanic soil has borne rich harvests 
of wheat through many centuries. 

Little of permanent, constructive improvement of natural condi- 
tions can be claimed except for the irrigating, terrace-building 
nations, and only one nation, the Japanese, has had the wisdom to 
maintain its forests, and yet has made great extensions of the area of 
cultivated lands which originally must have been very small. Tillage 
in most places has to be supplemented by some means of preserving 
or increasing the fertility of the soil, as the rice-growing nations of 
eastern Asia so well understand. In northern countries the keeping 
of domestic animals has contributed enormously to sustain crop pro- 
duction, but in many tropical countries the methods of temperate 
regions are not applicable and new adaptations are required. 

Conditions are found in many tropical countries where our methods 
of tillage agriculture prove more destructive and less permanent than 
the milpa system. On steep slopes or on lands that do not resist 
erosion, breaking and stirring the soil may result in serious injury 
with the first heavy rain, or gradual surface erosion may leave noth- 
ing but a sterile subsoil after a few seasons of tillage. Thus it is 
possible for lands to be destroyed or seriously injured by wrong ap- 
plications of tillage systems even more rapidly than by milpa agri- 
culture. It may even be claimed that the milpa system is more per- 
manent since it can be continued indefinitely if the cuttings and burn- 
ings are not too frequent, so that grasses do not become established 
in place of the ready vegetation. 

The newcomer’s theory of tropical development is that all of the 
difficulties arise from the failure to adopt the northern crops and 
methods. The tropical crops are unfamiliar and the lands appear 
uncultivated. No plows, harrows, drills, or cultivators are to be 
seen, perhaps only a few people, working with clumsy hoes or hack- 
ing the bushes with long knives, appearing so strange and casual that 
any backward condition is likely to be ascribed at once to the out- 
landish methods. The idea that tillage methods must be established 
in order to improve tropical agriculture is so nearly an obsession 
with people from northern countries that little consideration has 
been given to other possibilities, such as the intensive utilization of 
tree crops by methods that would maintain or increase the fertility 
of the soil and avoid unnecessary labor.’ 

That tree crops were not much used by primitive peoples is easy 
to understand when the temporary, seminomadic character of the 


7 Possibilities of intensive Agriculture in Tropical America, Proc. Second Pan-American 
Scientific Congress, Vol. III, pp. 573-579 (1915-16). 


MILPA AGRICULTURE—COOK. 825 


milpa system is taken into account. The tree crops usually do not 
become productive for several seasons and require an investment of 
labor not likely to be made among tribes who do not have private 
property in land, or other assurances of permanent tenure that are 
the basis of agriculture in northern countries. The only tropical 
tree crop that seems to have been cultivated systematically and on a 
large scale in ancient America was cacao. The native plantations 
of cacao in Guatemala were compared by an early Spanish writer 
to the vines and olive trees of Spain. Cacao was grown as a sub- 
culture under leguminous trees called “ mother of cacao,” and the 
same method is still applied to cacao and coffee in many tropical 
countries (pl. 14, fig. 1). Instead of forming artificial grasslands and 
deserts, an ideal for tropical agriculture is to develop artificial for- 
ests that not only will yield food or other useful products but at the 
same time maintain or increase the fertility of the soil. 


SUMMARY. 
LIMITATIONS OF NATIVE AGRICULTURE IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 


Milpa agriculture, the system that is used generally by primitive 
peoples in the Tropics, is based on the cutting and burning of new 
areas of forest each year, in order to clear the land for maize or other 
crops. The milpa system is adapted to sparsely inhabited regions, 
with long intervals between burnings, but has definite limitations in 
populous districts. If the land is burned over too frequently, not 
only the forest trees but all other types of woody vegetation eventu- 
ally are exterminated. Perennial grasses become established, which 
render the land useless for agricultural purposes. 

Replacement of all the forests of a tropical region by grasslands 
sets a natural limit to a period of agricultural occupation under the 
milpa system, because the method of clearing the land by cutting and 
burning is not effective against grasses. KEvery extension of the 
grass-covered areas means that more land has become unproductive, 
and eventually the food supply becomes restricted. A district that 
may have been able for a time to support a large population may be 
entirely denuded and completely abandoned as a fire-swept waste of 
grasslands. This condition continues until a period of reforestation 
has intervened to exterminate the grasses and renew the soil so that 
the land can be cleared again by burning and reoccupied by agri- 
cultural people. Many tropical forests are found to represent not 
truly virgin growth, but various stages of reforestation, which re- 
quire a long period of time. 

The limitations of the milpa system and the resulting periodicity 
of agricultural populations tends to be more definite in districts oc- 

12573°—21——22 


326 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


cupied by larger and more advanced communities, because denuda- 
tion is more extensive and complete. Large Indian towns in Central 
America are surrounded by belts of deforested grasslands, and many 
districts that were centers of ancient populations are now wunin- 
habited. 

Assuming that the ancient people lived under the same conditions, 
grew the same crops, and used the same system of agriculture as the 
native populations of recent times, it is reasonable to infer that the 
consequences of deforestation and denudation were the same in the 
past as in the present, and that the same difficulties were encountered 
in maintaining the food supplies in populous regions. The ancient 
cities and sculptured monuments of Central America show that 
relatively large, centralized communities must have existed, and limi- 
tations of the native system of agriculture may explain why the 
ancient centers of population were abandoned. 

To recognize the limitations of the primitive systems is not with- 
out practical bearing, in pointing to the danger of over-balanced 
urban activity and congestion without corresponding development 
of agriculture. Wider exploitation of natural resources by industrial 
nations is made possible by modern facilities of communication, but 
the biological limitations of production are to be recognized, as with 
the primitive milpa system. Although cultivation is more con- 
tinuous where tillage methods are used, systems of agriculture that 
do not maintain the fertility of the soil are essentially nomadic and 
predatory. More permanent agriculture and more rational distribu- 
tion of populations are problems to be faced. Agriculture is the 
root of civilization, and the plant withers if the root decays. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE I. 


|. INDIANS PLANTING CORN IN A MILPA, NOT VERY WELL BURNED, IN 
EASTERN GUATEMALA, CAJABON DISTRICT. 


2. INDIAN CARRIERS BETWEEN TACTIC AND SALAMA. 


The Indians of this region often go many miles from home to “make” milpas and their crops are 
; carried homein back loads, 


*‘smoljejueld euened oy) Ur 194jJo AI0A punoy 


*9IN4Nose JO Poyjour oATHeU ON Aq ZuraImq suleunel JUeTOUe Aq WMOYS se ‘pa}eAT}[NO pure poytqeyut ApIoULIOF 
pue sutjjno 104ye sso] pue sdumys oy} suome pojueld ‘veut qnq ‘T[eyULe1 OAIsSeoxe pure syse10y AAVOY JO WOTsed B “ory, eISOD 
-jeny ‘2eq Bled BITV ‘o}Moedeg 4B uoNeyue[d veyoo suno0X °Z U19}Se9 JO JJoq VULUeG OY} UI 4S010} UIsITA JO pjoO Jo JUeUMOY “T 


SG ALV1d *yYOOO— 616]. ‘WOdey uBluOSy}WS 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE 3. 


I. DENSE TROPICAL FOREST ON SUBSTRATUM OF SOLID LIMESTONE ALONG THE 
Rio DULCE, EASTERN GUATEMALA. - 


2. TROPICAL FOREST ALONG POLOCHIC RIVER, EASTERN GUATEMALA. 


Abundance of Attalea palms and silk cotton trees shows that the forest is not very old. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE 4. 


i. Milpa agriculture in eastern Guatemala, showing hillsides reforested, with a large cornfield 
extending along the upper slopes of the hills in the background above the town of 
Cajabon. 


2. Desert vegetation, mostly tree forms of cactus (Cereus and Pereskia) in a denuded region at 
El Rancho, eastern Guatemala. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE 5. 


1. Milpa of the previous year, covered with low growth, on slope in background with forest 
pene, Cores plantations, and sugar cane below, in Senahu coffee district of Alta Vera Paz, 
uatemala. 


i ti se a 


Photo by G. N. Collins and C. B. Doyle. 


2. Site of ruins of Mitla, showing cactus desert vegetation. 


Smithsonian Report, 19 


antation near Escuintla, Guatemala, shaded by large trees to maintain art 
conditions. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE 7. 


1. Prehistoric agricultural terraces at Ollantaytambo, in southern Peru, showing the most 
intensive and specialized development of agriculture, at the other extreme from the milpa 
system. 


2. Ruin at Mitla overgrown with desert vegetation. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE 8. 


1. Prehistoric mound near Sepacuite, Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala, discovered in clearing the forest 
fora coliee plantation. A few teeth were found, but no bones, which probably had completely 
decayed. 


2. Milpa agriculture near Cajabon, eastern Guatemala, with growing maize on the slopes of the 
hills, partially reforested areas below jane recently burned milpas in the foreground, at the 


right a barrier or fire stop to protect the bush land above and the newly cut milpa on the slope 
between the fire stop and the water course. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE 9. 


1. Pottery bowl from a cave in the Senahu district of eastern Guatemala, relic of a previous occu- 
pation of a region now being reoccupied after a period of reforestation. The bowl measures 94 
inches broad and 4 inches high, is of very regular form, and had an orange-yellow glazed or 
polished lining, still partially in place. 


2. Indian cornfields in the table-lands of Guatemala, among the pyramids of ancient Quiché, 
originally faced with smooth stone blocks, which have been removed to build the modern city. 
The name Quiché means forest, though no forests are left in this region. ‘ 


; mnoag ee UI 4Se10J SUTUTVUIOI YYIM ‘soyoo yuetd 04 Surmmq “e[euloyen+) 104Se0 
Aq porveyo AT}UOdI ‘e[VUIOJeNy) W19}SvO JO JOLIASIG MogeleD ut ‘7Teq tleA ei[y ‘eymnoedeg ‘ammytnorise Jo poriod JerIve We Jo oor 
j}A018 Jso1oy AAvoY JO UINyeIJsqns Se SHOOI oUo}souNT] possep *z “oII{SIp 4Se1oy peaeeyo Ayjuede1 UT punoy ASyyo A10}30d quaIDUYy *T 


‘O] ALW1d *YOOO—6 161 ‘HWodey ueiuosy}IWS 


"SNOILIGNOD IWYNLVYN YAGNN HLMOUS) 
IsayoO AAVAH JO NOIDSAY V ‘VIVWALVNS Naalsva NI NOavfvD LV GAGNNAQ AlAaLaIdNOD LSOWNTY SAdIsTilH 


Cee 


& Ss 


“]] ALVId *YOOO— 616] ‘Hodey uRluosy}IWS 


Smith'sonian Report; 1919.—Cook. PLATE 12. 


1. Gently sloping table-lands near Quiché, Guatemala, still partly cultivated but becoming badly 
eroded since grazing animals were introduced. 


2. Erosion of denuded gently sloping uplands formerly cultivated near Quiché, Guatemala, with 
reforestation in the gullies. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook, PLATE 13. 


1. Luxuriart guinea-grass pastures, of spontaneous -growth, after burning of forest for milpa 
agriculture, Gonaye Island, Haiti, September, 1917. 


2. Dry, stony land with too little vegetation to clear by burning, but the grass and weeds dug out 
ue ‘Gatlassts for a scattering growth of maize, as in the background. District of Furcy, 
sland of Haiti. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Cook. PLATE 14. 


1. Plantation of cacao in Senahu district, Guatemala, an example of permanent crop production 
under artificial forest conditions. 


2. Partially reforested grassland, Alta Vera Paz, Guatemala, slopes at the right and in the back- 
ground with open growths of pine, at the left a small gully shaded by Byrsonima and 
other broad-leaved trees, 


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? 


ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE MAMMOTH. 
By H. N&EvvVILLE. 


[ With 3 plates. ] 


One of the most widely believed assumptions of general biology 
is, perhaps, that the mammoth was especially fitted to withstand 
severe cold. All the authors—paleontologists properly speaking, 
geologists, zoologists, even students of prehistory—who have had 
occasion to write about this witness of the earliest ages of humanity, 
agree on its adaptation to a cold climate. And it is surprising the 
weakness of the arguments which are brought forward, a weakness 
which is imperfettly concealed by the great word “adaptation” too 
often used, as was done in the past, with the virtus dormitiva, and 
as is still frequently done with formulas of the same kind. 

On this foundation, regarded as indisputable, of the mammoth’s 
adaptation to cold, have been developed numerous courses of rea- 
soning, all of which are primarily concerned with reconciling this 
power of resistance to cold with the brutal fact that the animal 
which was supposed to have benefited by it disappeared, while others, 
placed under identical circumstances, survived. 

The study of the frozen remains of mammoths found in Siberia 
and that of the environment in which these animals lived, remnants 
of which are preserved along with their own, have furnished numer- 
ous and interesting data, which are, however, less striking than the 
things imagined by scientists. The vegetable remains found with 
the mammoths throw some light on this question of environment, 
without, it appears, being sufficient to explain it clearly. Even with 
regard to this subject there is material for controversy. Howarth 
admitted that the fauna and flora which give this northern environ- 
ment its character are mixed with Mediterranean elements whose 
presence complicates the problem.” Reid asserts positively that the 
plants found with the mammoths are not characteristic of a cold 


climate.2 One fact, in any event, is clear—the Siberian mammoths 
died in an environment which was cold enough for the remains, 


frozen at the time of death, to be preserved after a fashion to our day. 
Admitting that these proboscidians were especially resistant to 
cold, it was necessary to find causes able to overcome this resistance. 


1 Translated, with permission, by Gerrit S. Miller, jr., from L’Anthropologie, July, 1919. 
2 Geological Magazine, vol. 8, p. 310. 1881. 
8 Geological Magazine, yol. 8, p. 505. 1881. 


327 


328 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The only explanation which at first sight appears satisfactory in this 
respect is the one offered by such writers as Cuvier and d’Archiac 
and brought up again by Howarth; it consists in admitting the ap- 
pearance of sudden and intense cold sufficiently severe to have killed 
on the spot the mammoths as well as some other mammals, one of 
the best known of which is the Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and sufi- 
ciently persistent to have preserved the bodies. As this assumption 
of sudden glacial cataclysms rested on other arguments than the dis- 
appearance of a few animals, it resulted that the hypothesis relative 
to this disappearance became an essential part of a general theory 
regarding certain large geological phenomena of the quaternary 
period—transportation of bowlders, deposition of alluvial material, 
etc.—a theory essentially admitting a diluvial catastrophe in one or 
several acts, accompanied by an intense cold suddenly spread over 
vast areas and producing there a group of phenomena one of which 
would have been the brutal extinction of life, at least as concerned 
certain mammals. 

At present no one sustains this theory, so far as I know. As to the 
mammoth it is admitted that, while being able, thanks to its thick 
fur, to withstand cold, the animal succumbed “ because the invasion 
of dry cold killed off the vegetation which supported it” (de Lap- 
parent). Going somewhat further into detail, it has been admitted 
that the mammoth could have inhabited France, England, and Ger- 
many during the prevalence of a cold and humid climate (de Lap- 
parent’s second Pleistocene age), which permitted the existence of a 
vegetation sufficient to feed it, but where its extinction was the work of 
man (Reid‘), while in Siberia it might have been the victim of 
the lack of food brought on by the increase of cold, there being noth- 
ing to prove that the extinction was simultaneous, in the various 
regions where the mammoth lived. 

These explanations are not convincing. 

In the first place, it is difficult to admit that the extinction of the 
mammoth could have been, in any region whatever, the work of man, 
any more, for that matter, than the work of wild beasts. Like the 
elephants of the present day, the mammoth could not have known 
really dangerous enemies among the beasts of prey; and, just as the 
primitive hunting methods of the African natives have never, it 
seems, been able to bring about the extinction of the African ele- 
phants,® those of the hunters of the stone age probably never caused 
the extermination of the mammoth over the whole of any extensive 
area. 

4 Geological Magazine, vol. 9, p. 44. 1882. 


5 Abyssinian traditions say that the elephant has killed more men than man has ever 
killed elephants. 


EXTINCTION OF THE MAMMOTH—NEUVILLE. 329 


Vastly more acceptable is the hypothesis of a diminution in food 
supply. As Georges Pouchet says, the struggle is much more be- 
tween the herbivore and the vegetation than between the carnivore 
and the herbivore. However, with the frozen remains of Siberian 
mammoths and rhinoceroses occur the traces of a relatively abun- 
dant vegetation, the presence of which Mr. de Lapparent has ex- 
plained by admitting that the Siberian climate was then more humid 
and more oceanic, a fact for which he supplies a geographical ex- 
planation; the same author recalls, moreover, that in spite of the 
severity of the climate and the meagerness of the pasturage immense 
herds of herbivores exist on the high Tibetan plateaus. It should 
be noted that at that time the Siberian vegetation was arborescent 
up to the seventy-fourth parallel (von Toll: Liakhof Islands) and 
that arborescent vegetation is precisely the kind which suits pro- 
boscidians according to what nature now teaches us.* The coin- 
cidence between a lessening of the food supply and the extinction of 
the mammoths therefore remains hypothetical, and the very authors 
who explain the latter by the former furnish arguments against their 
own hypothesis. A progressively aggravated stringency of food 
might have contributed toward the degeneration of the species, to- 
ward lessening the number of its representatives and finally to its 
disappearance; but it is impossible to admit, at least without falling 
back on the assumption of sudden cataclysms, that the mammoths 
allowed themselves individually to die of hunger on the icy ground 
which preserved their remains. 

Tt is not exaggerated to conclude from what precedes that the 


question of the causes of the disappearance of the mammoth re- 


mains open, both as to the general extinction of the species and as to 
the very numerous individual cases in which death took place under 
such conditions that the corpses were immediately frozen. 

It was without the idea of solving this problem that I undertook, 
a few years ago, the study of the integument of the mammoth. I 
had previously familiarized myself with the anatomical study of the 
elephants. The laboratory of comparative anatomy at the Paris 
Museum haying then received a very well preserved piece of mam- 
moth skin, I made some histological sections from this specimen. 
Somewhat later Mr. Boule kindly assigned to me, pro parte, the 
study of the mammoth which Count Stenbok-Fermor had just pre- 
sented to the laboratory of paleontology. This was an opportunity 
for me to examine more closely the questions relating to the mam- 


6¥n the wild state elephants like herbage, but the staple of their diet consists of young 
branches and shoots ; thus open forests or high brush in which they can easily move about 
and find their food are, with some differences between the elephants of Africa and those of 
Asia, the ranges that are preferred, 


830 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


moth, and the readers of Anthropologie are already acquainted 
with the investigations which I made with Mr. Gautrelet regarding 
the blood of this animal.’ 

The results relating to the integument appeared to me especially 
instructive. They present facts which are incompatible with the gen- 
erally accepted opinions regarding adaptation to cold which I have 
alluded to above. I shall merely recapitulate the essential points 
about these facts, referring, for more details, to two previously pub- 
lished notes.® 

Plate 1 represents the piece of skin received by the laboratory 
of comparative anatomy. It is easy to distinguish two kinds of hair 
which I consider, without going imto the discussions which have 
arisen relative to the distinctions to be established in the hairy cover- 
ing of the mammoths, as representing merely bristles, long and 
scattered, and a very dense underfur. One can also see the thick- 
ness of the dermis, forming a baconlike layer. 

To understand the meaning of these conditions it is necessary to 
compare them with those presented by the elephants which live in 
the tropical zone and for which there can not be any question of 
adaptation to cold. Plate 2 shows the essential characters of the 
skin of the elephants. Few hairs are to be seen; abundant on the 
young, which at birth is covered with a uniform down sufficiently 
sparse so that the grain of the skin remains easily visible, it after- 
wards becomes less dense simultaneously with the differentiating of 
the bristles and underfur. Without ever forming a thick fur, these 
hairs are often much more numerous on subjects living in freedom 
than the menagerie elephants would lead one to suppose. The 
dermis is here quite as thick and quite as baconlike as in the mam- 
moths. 

In the skin of the elephants, that which especially strikes the at- 
tention is the warty character of*the epidermis. While the epider- 
mis of the mammoths is almost smooth, that of the elephants, both 
African and Asiatic, is very coarsely rugose. The dermal papillae 
of these latter proboscidians are covered with a strong epithelial 
coating in which the corneous layer predominates, and each papilla 
retains its individuality in such a way that the cutaneous covering 
appears shagrinous, or, rather, definitely warty; this aspect, more 
or less pronounced according to the regions of the body, is not yet 
present in the new born, in which the grain of the skin appears 
to be exactly like that of the mammoth, but it afterwards becomes 
steadily more accentuated. Plate 3 explains this structure. I have 


7L’ Anthropologie, vol. 26, p. 298. 1915. 

8H. Neuville, Du tégument des proboscidiens. Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, 1817, No. 6, 
and Sur quelques particularités du tégument des éléphants et sur les comparaisons qu’elles 
suggérent. Ibid., 1918, No. 5. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Neuville. PLATE lI. 


PIECE OF SKIN OF MAMMOTH. NATURAL SIZE. 


A. Section perpendicular to the surface. 
B. Surface, showing hairy covering (bristles and underitr). 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Neuville. PLATE 2. 


B C 


PIECE OF SKIN FROM FORE LEG OF AN INDIAN ELEPHANT. 
NATURAL SIZE. 


A. Section perpendicular to the surface, showing relation of dermis to 
epidermis; the dermis, whitish, about 2 em. thick, is overlaid by a 
blackish epidermis about 7 mm. thick; the corneous layer, formed 
of closely juxtaposed fingerlike masses, makes up nearly the whole 
of these 7 mm. 

B. Superficial aspect of the dermis after removal of the epidermis. 

C. Under surface of the epidermis. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Neuville. PLATE 3. 


SECTION OF SKIN OF FORE LEG OF AFRICAN 
ELEPHANT. XIO. 


e. Hypertrophied epidermic papille. 
p. Papillary zone of the dermis. 

7. Reticular zone of the dermis. 

s. Externalsheath ofa hair. 


EXTINCTION OF THE MAMMOTH—NEUVILLE. 831 


called attention to the nature of these facts as it appears in the 
light of anatomo-pathological comparisons, which alone, it seems 
to me, permit an understanding of its meaning; the skin of the ele- 
phant forms a vast corneous papilloma, which first appeared, ac- 
cording to all likelihood, as the result of the action of the irritants ® 
inherent in the environment in which the elephants live, and favored 
by a special character common to elephants and to the mammoth, 
namely, the absence of cutaneous glands. I have been no more able 
than earlier authors to find either sweat glands or sebaceous glands. 

There is no reason to believe that the degeneration of the hairy 
covering in the elephants has been accompanied by or even could 
have been caused by the previous disappearance of the sebaceous 
glands, whose presence is regarded as connected, except in very 
rare instances, with that of the hair, so much so that these glands 
are even regarded as appendages to the hair. On the mammoth, as 
well as on the elephant, the hair occurs without its accustomed annex, 
the sebaceous gland, and if the hair of the present-day elephants is 
very Sparse it was, on the contrary, as highly developed as pos- 
sible in the mammoth. Hence, there is no relation here between 
the diminution of the hairy covering and the disappearance of the 
sebaceous glands. For further details on this entire question. I refer 
to the two notes mentioned above. 

We have, therefore, two animals very nearly related zoologically— 
the mammoth and the elephant—one of which lived in severe climates 
while the other is now confined to certain parts of the Torrid Zone. 
The mammoth, it is said, was protected from the cold by its fur 
and by the thickness of its dermis. But the dermis, as I have said, 
and as the illustrations prove, is identical in the two instances; it 
would therefore be hard to attribute a specially adaptive function to 
the skin of the mammoth. The fur, much more dense, it is true, on 
the mammoths than on any of the living elephants, nevertheless is 
present only in a very special condition which is fundamentally 

® The forehead, the anterior part of the trunk, and the lower part of the legs show this 
character in a specially accentuated condition. But these are the parts which are the 
most exposed to blows and friction against trees and brush. It is by pressing with their 
forehead that elephants overcome the resistance of obstacles which the trunk can not put 
aside ; it is the anterior part of the trunk which comes the most directly in contact with 
the brush; as to the lower part of the legs the causes of irritation are yet more evident; 
finally the tail, where the papillary hypertrophy is especially strong and where it even 
takes on special characters, is constantly in motion and is thus subjected to irritative 
influences to which it reacts like the skin in general but with the acquisition of still more 
accentuated characters. Adaptation is here not an empty word; we know its causes, 
irritative influences; we can perceive its nature, keratosic reactions; we can watch the 
appearance of the special characters which it produces, papillomatous tendencies; we can 


observe its progress, graduated according to the use to which each region of the body is 
put and according to the influences which act on each region; finally it is easy to realize 


how useful to animals whose skin is fundamentally very sensitive the hypertrophy of the 


corneous layer can be, a hypertrophy which in other animals is pathological but which has 
here become normal, furnishing a protection which aids in the preseryation of the species. 


Joe ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


identical in all of these mammals. Let us examine the consequences 
of this special condition, consisting, I may repeat, in the absence of 
cutaneous glands. The physiological function of these glands is very 
important.?° It is superfluous to recall that the sebaceous impreg- 
nation gives the fur in general its isolating properties and imparts 
to each of its elements, the hairs, an impermeability, thanks to which 
they resist with a well-known strength all disintegrating agents, and 
notably those which are atmospheric. Everyone knows to what de- 
eree the presence of the grease produced by the sebaceous glands 
renders wool resistant and isolating, and to what degree the total 
lack of this fatty matter lessens the quality of woolen goods. Com- 
parative anatomy gives, moreover, some instructive information as 
to the part played by this impregnation. Mammals deprived of 
sebaceous glands are very rare; the two-toed sloths (Choloepus) 
of Central and South America and the golden moles of Africa 
(Chrysochloris) are in this condition; but it is well known that the 
sloths are particularly sensitive, even in their own country, to cold 
and damp. 

The very peculiar fur of the mammoth thus furnished only a pre- 
carious protection against cold, a protection analogous to that enjoyed 
at present by a few mammals of the tropical zone. its dermis was, 
it is true, very thick, but no more so than that of the existing ele- 
phants. It appears to me impossible to find, in the anatomical exam- 
ination of the skin and pelage, any argument in favor of adaptation 
to cold. It has been thought that the reduction of the ears, thick 
and very small relatively to those of the elephants, was the result of 
such an adaptations and indeed this character might be so under- 
stood in this sense; such large and thin ears as those of our elephants 
would probably be very sensitive to the action of cold. But it has 
also been suggested that the fattiness and the peculiar form of the 
tail in the mammoth was an adaptive character of the same kind; 
however, it is to the fat-rumped sheep, animals of the hot regions, 
whose range extends to the center of Africa, that we must go for an 
analogue to this last character. 

Ji is, therefore, only thanks to entirely superficial comparisons 
which do not withstand a somewhat detailed analysis, that it has been 
possible to regard the mammoth as adapted to the cold. On account of 


10Tt is merely necessary to mention that according to the opinion now accepted, that of 
Unna, the effect of the sebum is to lubricate the fur, thus protecting it against disintegra- 
tion, and that of the sweat is to soak the epidermis with an oily liquid, protecting it also 
against desiccation and disintegration. In reality the deposit of sebum on the surface of 
the skin, so easy to observe in the human species, especially in certain cases of baldness in 
which it becomes excessive, contributes also to the protection of the integument. In the 
absence of sebum and sweat the only fatty impregnation of the epidermis is that which 
comes from the action of the cells of the epidermis itself; this action remains, in any 
event, very special and very limited, and the absence of the glandular secretions puts the 
skin in a condition of less resistance well known in dermatology. 


EXTINCTION OF THE MAMMOTH—NEUVILLE. 8338 


the peculiar character of its pelage the animal was, on the contrary, 
at a disadvantage in this respect. 

Still other causes of inferiority can be assigned to the mammoth. 
One of them is the peculiar character of the tusks. Usually very large, 
out of proportion even, these tusks showed most frequently, it ap- 
pears, such an accentuated curve that in many individuals the tips 
were so directed (backward or sideways) that it is not easy to see of 
what use they could have been; rather than efficient weapons they 
appear to have been only incumbering accessories." 


Thus brought to touch upon this special subject I think that I must make a digression 
with regard to the use of the tusks of the proboscidians. 

It has been denied that these tusks are true weapons. It has even been suggested that 
for the elephants they are merely a kind of tool, which the animals employ for forcing a 
passage through the density of the forests, and that the tips of these ever-growing teeth 
are worn away by this work, the normal development of the tusks being thus limited after 
the manner of the incisors in the rodents. According to this hypothesis it would be con- 
ceived that the excessive development of the tusks of the mammoths might result from the 
circumstance that these animals lived in regions where the forests were not dense enough 
to provide the causes of regulating wear. This argument is ingenious; however, I do not 
believe that it conforms with strict reality, and I ask permission of my readers to go 
into a few details here which by explaining the ethology of the living proboscidians will 
also help us to understand more clearly that of the forms which have disappeared. , 

The elephants wear their tusks voluntarily by rubbing them against trees for this 
purpose in a manner comparable to that in which cats sharpen their claws. ‘The tusks 
thus sharpened (they are often quite pointed, or terminated by a kind of chisel) are very 
effective weapons which the elephants often use. On account of their position they can 
only be used most effectively against animals of about the same size as those which bear 
these arms, hence they serve especially, in conjunction with the trunk, in the fights which 
elephants engage in against each other. Wlephants, especially the males, are rather 
pugnaceous. We are thus led to regard the tusks as primarily sexual weapons, and, 
indeed, it is the males which are best armed. It appears to be unusual for elephants to 
use their tusks against creatures smaller than themselves. Of the latter, the principal, 
it might be said the only one with rare exceptions (carnivores attacking the young) 
which they have to attack is man. It is known only too weil how they behave toward 
him—charging him, the trunk folded back between the tusks, until they are upon their 
hunter, now become their victim; they then seize him with the trunk, suddenly stretched 
out, and treading on him at the same time they crush him and in some instances they 
even succeed in tearing him limb from limb; it may also happen that, throwing him on 
the ground, they transfix him with their tusks. 

Hlephants sometimes use their tusks for digging superficially ; I do not believe that they 
can use them as implements for forcing a passage through the forests. It is true that 
domesticated elephants use their tusks, when they are long enough, for certain tasks; for 
example, for beginning to raise up a beam which is lying on the ground and which they 
then encircle with their trunk, but it is difficult to see of what service they would be 
against trees. When an elephant wishes to tear away or break a shrub or a tree, if his 
trunk is not sufficient he applies his forehead or shoulder (especially the forehead) to the 
obstacle, and leaning against it with all his weight he acts upon it more efficaceously than 
by striking with the rather fragile tusks and running the risk of breaking them. it is 
well to recall also that, although inclined to wander, elephants normally, at least, follow 
regular paths which are not only kept clear of brush by their constant passage but which 
present in the dry season a remarkably leveled off appearance, stamped as they are by the 
broad feet of these gigantic animals. (I have in mind especially the African elephants.) 

Winally it sometimes happens that elephant tusks show anomalies of curvature some of 
which suggest those that were shown by the mammoth; I have figured one of this kind. 
(M. de Rothschild et H. Neuville, Sur une dent d’origine énigmatique, Archives de 
Zodlogie expérimentale, vol, 7, 1907, p. 271-3833. Pl. XXII-XXIV.) In the mammoths 
anomaly tended to become the rule, and this perhaps because of the absence or rarity of 
trees large enough to serve for the wearing down process which I have deseribed above. 
But from this last argument we can not deduce any proof as to the character of the 
vegetation ; it is asserted that the Siberian mammoths lived in the midst of trees of a 
fairly large size, birches for instance, and a few traces may sometimes be seen on their 


$34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


Others are characters which I believe to be imperfectly known up 
to the present and which I am going to mention briefly. If the 
mammoth did not show the keratosic reactions which give to the 
epidermis of the living elephants its truly characteristic warty struc- 
ture, the skin seems none the less to have undergone some reactions 
of the same nature, which were, it is true, strictly localized, and 
which instead of constituting an adaptation—that is, instead of being 
of utility—were to the highest degree inadaptive. ‘Tilesius had 
already observed in the mammoth of the St. Petersburg Museum that 
the soles of the hind feet appeared “as though dilated and crushed 
by the weight of the body so that they came up over the edges of 
the feet and covered them,” and Cuvier, from whom I am borrowing 
this citation,!? alludes pertinently to the fact that there was “ some- 
thing of the same kind in the elephant of the menagerie at Versailles, 
described by Perrault.” Asa general rule the sole of the foot in the 
elephant tends to be turned up behind so as to form a slight rim on 
the side opposite to that which bears the nails. This character may 
become abnormally prominent in individuals living in menageries. 
According to Perrault’s description and figure, it appears that such 
was the case with the one which he described, and it is interesting 
to see that “something of the same kind” may be shown by a 
mammoth. 

I have observed at the periphery of the soles of the hind feet of 
the mammoth presented to the museum by Count Stenbok-Fermor 
not merely simple rims but horny excrescences forming as it were 
supernumerary nails and resembling nails so perfectly that it might 
be relatively difficult to distinguish one from the other. I have 
also been able to make on an Asiatic elephant that had lived in the 
menagerie of the Paris Museum an observation which corroborates 
that of Perrault, and which allows me to assert without hesitation 
that these anomalies of menagerie elephants are of the same char- 
acter as those which were shown by the mammoths."* 
tusks of the wearing down that I have spoken of above, produced by voluntary rubbing 
against trees. 

In any event the tusks of the mammoths could not have been, I repeat, anything but 
accessories that were more incumbering than useful. If this is not an instance of real 
degeneration the result, nevertheless, must haye been injurious rather than favorable to 
the preservation of the species. 

4 Ossements fossiles, ed. 4, vol. 2, p. 232. Paris, 1834. 

4 Description anatomique d’un éléphant male, Mémoires de l’Académie royale des 
Sciences, vol. 3, pt. 3, 1784, pp. 91-156 (see pp. 103-104 and pl. 19). 


144 Here again I think I must.make a digression concerning the terms of comparison fur- 
nished by the recent elephants. 

In these animals the number of toenails is subject to frequent individual variations. 
It is classic, but incorrect, to say that the African elephant has four nails on the front 
feet and three on the hind feet, while the Asiatic elephant has five of them in front and 
four behind. These numbers are not constant. Especially in the Asiatic elephant, better 
known than its African congener, there may be four nails on each foot, or five, or four 
in front and five behind, contrary to the generally recognized type. Aristotle, noticing the 
relation of these nails to the digits, suggested that they were not true nails; this view 


EXTINCTION OF THE MAMMOTH—N®BUVILLE. 8385 


The presence of the rims or horny excrescences which thus sur- 
rounded the soles of the hind feet of the latter proboscidians, espe- 
cially when developed to the extreme degree shown by certain indi- 
viduals, must have peculiarly interfered with walking, even on nearly 
bare soil, and must have made it practically impossible on ground 
covered with brushwood. There is a great difference between these 
conditions which may, I think, be called unhealthy, and the adaptive 
characters shown by certain ungulates which habitually live in 
marshy regions, Limnotragus, for instance. For the mammoths this 
was a cause of weakness which it seems to me necessary to point out. 

In view of the group of conditions thus enumerated is it still pos- 
sible to regard the mammoth as having undergone a process of 
adaptation conferring on it a special power of resistance to the hard- 
ships of a habitat under a glacial climate? I do not believe so. 

If it had been able to flee before the invasion of the cold and to reach 
temperate or hot regions, perhaps the mammoth would have survived 
like the present-day elephants, of which it shows itself to be in 
general such a near relative. But it probably did not have the 
faculty of adaptation which we see existing in the elephants and of 
which we can analyze some important details. Not having been able, 
for reasons which I can not trace, to leave the regions which had 
become particularly inhospitable to it, the mammoth was perhaps 
subject to the effects of an alimentation made more and more difficult 
by the gradual depauperization of the vegetation. In any event, it 
was subjected in a specially inexorable manner to the attacks of the 
cold against which it was ill protected. In a general way this cold 
must have caused the species to degenerate; moreover the individual 
accidents which it occasioned could not help being frequent. 

Attempts have been made to trace in detail the causes of death in 
some of the individuals found frozen. Traumatisms occasioned by 
falls into crevasses or by land slides certainly brought many of 
these individuals to their death. The Beresowka mammoth pre- 
sents a good example of this; multiple fractures with vascular rup- 
tures and extensive hemorrhages, the whole seeming to indicate a 


is particularly applicable to the supernumerary nails which the elephant sometimes shows 
as well as the mammoth. The description, already cited, by Perrault is very instructive in 
this respect. The Versailles elephant (from the Congo) showed such pseudo-ungual 
growths having a length up to 13 inches and “ twisted in a very odd fashion.” ‘It was 
necessary,” Perrault adds, ‘‘to saw them off, because these excrescences were in the 
elephant’s way when walking” p. 104). In the case of this kind which I examined in 
an Asiatic elephant the nails, as in the mammoth, showed an irregular wall bearing 
transverse very irregular thickened rings whose presence and whose characters gave 
evidence of an altogether erratic growth. Strictly speaking the nails were not hyper- 
trophied unless in length; the portion called keraphyll extended from base to tip. ‘The 
whole structure bore the marks of an irregular development and not of a simple hyper- 
trophy. Structures formed in this way are, I insist, wholly inadaptive. Ounce more it is 
to be insisted, such anomalies, carried so far, are for the elephant the result of menagerie 
life, while for the Siberian mammoth they were natural, related apparently to special 
conditions of habitat to which the animal was unable to react by the acquisition of 
adaptive characters, anomalies which in the end brought on its disappearance. 


336 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


violent blow like that produced by a fall from a high place, could 
be observed under conditions which appear to be beyond criticism. 

Brandt thought he could prove from the condition, and notably 
from the color of the contents of the blood vessels in the head of 
a Le’hinoceros tichorhinus found under conditions identical with those 
under which the remains of mammoths are found, that this animal 
died of asphyxiation. This specimen has been made to serve as an 
argument for death by asphyxiation from immersion in the case of 
the mammoths recently discovered and to serve as proof of diluvial 
cataclysms. Fatal accidents from immersion in water or from 
miring may have been frequent without, however, its being neces- 
sary to regard them as connected with cataclysms. Let it again be 
noticed, moreover, that here once more it is illusory appearances 
which have furnished material for explanations. Formerly capital 
importance was attributed to the color of the blood in diagnosing 
death by asphyxia; certain old masters of legal medicine were 
imbued with this idea, which Brandt applied to his rhinoceros. 
But it is now proved as concerns man that “if at the moment of 
death there may exist some difference in the color (of the blood), 
according to the particular kind of death, this difference vanishes 
in the time intervening between death and the autopsy. Neither 
have local congestions any diagnostic value. I will mention further 
that the condition of the blood, such as Gautrelet and I have de- 
scribed it in a mammoth, only allows very limited investigations. 
The carcasses of mammoths are far from being found in perfect 
preservation; generally nothing more than shreds are dug out, in 
which the skin, flesh, and cartilages are sometimes apparently in a 
fresh condition; as for the rest, it is destroyed or profoundly altered. 
Gléboff (1846) thought he had found blood corpuscles and nervous 
elements, but these corpuscles were only grains of dust, and these 
nerve fibers were only bits of mycelium of saprophytic fungi. 

All the ordinary causes of death from cold must have acted on 
the mammoth. The snow, the icy rains; could have penetrated the 
curious fur with which the animal was covered; the fur must then 
have transformed itself into a veritable cloak of ice, not merely in 
a superficial manner, but down to direct contact with the epidermis. 
This was deprived for its part of the very efficacious protection 
which in other mammals is furnished by the continual discharge of 
sebum and sweat. 

Finally it does not seem to me that the essential character of the 
mammoth’s skin—that. is, the absence of cutaneous glands—-can be 
regarded as having been progressively developed in this species, 
whose first representatives would have been, on this hypothesis, bet- 
ter protected than the last. We see the same character existing in the 


144 Thoinot, Précis de médecine légale, Paris, 1913, yol. 1, pp. 615-616. 


EXTINCTION OF THE MAMMOTH—NEUVILLE. Bad 


recent, elephants; it must be very ancient and has probably appeared 
coincidently with the differentiating of the proboscidian type, as has 
probably been the case with certain other characters which are very 
special and even very aberrant. The strangest of these is, I think, 
the obliteration of the pleural cavities which the Asiatic and Afri- 
can elephants normaliy show from the time of birth (it appears 
rather late in the fetus) and which is peculiar to them. 

To sum up: Se long as the external environment was favorable 
enough to permit the mammoth not to suffer from the causes of in- 
feriority with which it was afflicted the evolution of the species was 
able to go on not only without incumbrance but with enough vigor 
to have temporarily assured the dominance of these creatures, whose 
gigantic size reached perhaps that of the most formidable living ele- 
phants, which may measure nearly 4 meters at the withers..° What 
a difference between such individuals and the one found by Count 
Stenbok-Fermor’s prospectors. Were such representatives the de- 
generate descendants of the first? It is possible. Jt would even be 
tempting to say that it is probable. However, let us be prudent on 
this subject, and to fortify ourselves in this prudence let us try to 
calculate the conditions under which identical questions will present 
themselves to the paleontologists of the future. 


16 Mr. Boule has called my attention to the fact that it is best to accept only with the 
greatest reserve some of the statements which attribute a gigantic size to the mammoth. 
The question is worth looking into, and in order to throw some light on it I think I should 
here offer some numerical data. 

It was formerly agreed that the mammoth might exceed 5 meters at the withers and 
might bear tusks 7 meters long, each weighing about 200 kilograms; there was here 
apparently a certain amount of exaggeration and, in some instances at least, a confusion 
between ZH. primigenius and other extinct proboscidians. In opposition to these exaggera- 
tions it has been asserted that the stature of the mammoth did not exceed that of the 
recent Asiatic elephant. (Woodward, Outlines of Palaeontology, Cambridge, 1898, p. 307: 
* The extinct species (mammoth) does not appear to have exceeded the modern Indian 
elephant in size.”) The maximum height of this latter species, at the shoulder, is about 
2.9 meters, a maximum rarely attained, however. According to their meunted skeletons 
the Adams mammoth, from the mouth of the Lena, measures a little more than 3 meters 
at the shoulder, and Count Stenbok-Fermor’s specimen from the Liakhof Islands—that is, 
from a somewhat more northern deposit—measures only 2.5 meters. 

But it can not be questiened that other mammoths (I am here considering only the 
Siberian mammoths which are found actually frozen) reached a greater size. Leaving 
aside all statements which I can not support by authentic measurements, I shall limit 
myself to pointing out some data furnished by the size of the tusks. 

Thére is no constant relation between the size of a proboscidian and that of its tusks; 
very large individuals may have very small tusks. But the inverse is not true; an 
elephant of very small size could not bear the burden of very large tusks. I should hasten 
to add that even here no rule of proportion can be established, and the case of the 
mammoth is, I think, the proof of this. According to standards furnished by the recent 
elephants, the mammoth, I repeat, bore tusks which were entirely out of proportion with 
its stature. (See above, p. 838.) But admitting this, it appears to me impossible not to 
regard certain gigantic mammoth tusks as haying belonged to animals whose size was 
greater than that of the Adams and Stenbok-Fermor specimens. "Ward’s Records mention 
a mammoth tusk 3.65 meters long and 0.48 meters in maximum circumference, and 
another 3.35 meters long, 0.53 meters in circumference, and weighing 79 kilograms. These 
measurements are already much above those furnished by Asiatic elephants, with a 
maximum length of 2.71 meters, a maximum circumference of 0.445 meters, and a maxi- 
mum weight of 48 kilograms. But a mammoth tusk which may be seen in the galleries of 


338 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


When these paleontologists exhume in certain districts of Africa— 
for example, in certain parts of the basin of the Sobat or in certain 
regions near Lake Rudolph—the remains of the elephants which are 
now living there, they will feel in the presence of these colossal re- 
mains of a mammal which will then be extinct, the stupefaction which 
the discovery of the Diplodocus caused their predecessors. And when 
they find in other regions relatively not far removed from the preced- 
ing—for instance, at certain points in Somaliland—remains of ele- 
phants which were not so tall, and whose general form was more 
compact, they will probably try to find what relations can exist be- 
tween these types. Perhaps geology and paleontology will teach 
them that Africa was undergoing at our epoch a progressive desicca- 
tion, and that this process was nearly complete in Somaliland while 
the regions previously mentioned were still rather freely watered, even 
marshy in places; perhaps they will thus be led to believe that the 
differences in vegetation due to these causes had placed the Somaliland 
elephants at a disadvantage, and that, for instance, our Loxodon afri- 
canus orleanst would only be a degenerate representative of the group 
of the L. a knochenhaueri, peeli, cavendishi, oxyotis . . . But 
we know that such is not the fact. The first of these elephants is a 
mountain animal, very strong, very active, made particularly com- 
bative by certain conditions of insecurity, but still finding in the 
region where it lives an ample food supply and altogether the oppo- 
site to a degenerate animal. 

Let us therefore not be hasty in assuming such relationship between 
the largest Siberian mammoths and some few small individuals, even 
if these latter were found in the extreme north of this region. We 
must hope that new material will soon throw new light on this sub- 
ject. Let us hope especially that such specimens will be collected 
with the most extreme care, and that all details as to their condition 
and deposition will be very exactly determined. Meanwhile it is 
permissible to regard the extinction of the mammoth as having prob- 
ably come about progressively through degeneration, resulting from 
lack of adaptation to cold, a degeneration which was probably aggra- 
vated by some other causes of inferiority, and which was accelerated, 
perhaps, by a gradual diminution in the food supply. 
comparative anatomy of the Paris Museum exceeds all these records; although sawed off 
at the base and broken at the tip it measures along the outer side of its curve 3.62 meters, 
and its total length must have been in the neighborhood of 3.90 meters; its maximum 
circumference reaches 0.60 meters. However out of proportjon this tusk may have been 
to the size of the animal that it came from, the latter must have been, to be able to bear 
a pair of appendages of this magnitude, much larger than those whose height has just 
been mentioned. I may add that this last specimen came from the banks of the Kolima ; 
unfortunately I can not give the locality more exactly, but in any event it is a little more 


to the south than the localities where the Adams and Stenbok-Fermor mammoths were 
found. 


A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE RELATION BETWEEN 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION AND MIGRATION 
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE PALAEARCTIC 
REGION + 


By Col. R. MEInERTZHAGEN, M. B. O. U. 


In studying the migration of birds we can not confine ourselves to 
a narrow view of dates of arrival, weather influence on migration, 
routes of migration, etc., but are necessarily compelled to inquire 
into other ornithological problems which directly influence migration, 
such as the questions of molt, sustenance on migration, and others, 
among which the problem of geographical distribution is all im- 
portant. 

Until quite recently the study of migration was built on a sea of 
theories, sometimes based on no evidence and at other times based 
on insufficient data. Many authors had generalized on purely local 
facts and attempted to apply to all birds a principle which was only 
manifest in a single species at some isolated lighthouse or on some 
island observatory. The interpretation of facts was often attempted 
before those facts were themselves accurately known, and opinion 
was in many cases based not on knowledge, but cn conjecture. The 
result is that many distinguished authors did, and do still, hold op- 
posite views on similar migration problems. 

By applying existing theories to migration in general, it was 
found that they were usually only applicable to a particular species 
at one particular spot, and it became apparent that until a fairly 
comprehensive grasp could be got of the migration of each species 
throughout its range we should not progress to any great degree. 

The rules governing the migration of a species in Great Britain 
need not necessarily apply to that same species when passing from 
its summer quarters in other parts of the world to, say, India or 
Egypt. Each species contains many communities, and even very 
small local colonies, whose summer and winter homes and routes of 
migration are governed by laws which are almost individualistic. 
Not only each species and subspecies, but every small colony or family 
of birds presents on occasions a separate problem, the solution of 
which may differ in accordance with the many varied laws governing 


+1 Reprinted by permission from The Ibis for July, 1919, 
339 


340 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


the migratory habit. In this connection it is interesting to quote 
Whitlock (Migration of Birds, final paragraph) : 

Every species, nay, every little clan of birds has its own migratory history, 
resembling as a whole the story of the common flight, but on the other hand 
differing in many points in its minor details. 

Before, then, the migration of any species can be studied as a 
whole, a detailed knowledge of its geographical distribution will be 
necessary, and in grappling with this question we are at once con- 
fronted with the question of subspecies or geographical representa- 
tives. 

A subspecies is an incipient species and is evolved ab initio from 
exactly the same causes as a species. The causes of variation in 
species or subspecies may be roughly summarized as follows: We 
may attribute variation in size to the quantity or quality of food, 
variation in structure to some essential habit. developed in the daily 
search for food (it is hoped to show at some future date that length 
of wing is not dependent on length of migration, but on daily habit), 
special decorative development. to courtships necessitating nuptial 
display, the thickness or extent of the feathered regions to climate, 
and variation in color to climate or local surroundings or food. A 
high temperature, a dry atmosphere, and a bright light seem to pro- 
duce that bleached effect usual in desert forms. A temperate climate, 
moist air, and a dull sky tend to dark plumage. Alpine and Arctic 
forms display more white than is noticeable in the same bird from 
farther south or from lower altitudes; though we see in the case of 
Corvus cornix capellanus the brilliant glare of the Persian Gulf hay- 
ing the same effect on plumage as the glare from the Arctic snows has 
on many northern forms. 

Tt is curious that it is the influence of the breeding quarters which 
causes differentiation, the winter quarters and regions traversed on 
migration having little effect on coloration or structure.,, Wide-rang- 
ing and common species show the most variation, so long as their 
breeding area is not restricted, as in some of the Polar breeding 
species. It therefore seems likely that it is the nursery which tends 
to differentiation. This is most remarkable in such birds as Cuculus 
canorus and Micropus apus, whose nursery life scarcely extends to a 
quarter of the whole year, and among which several well-marked 
geographical forms exist which in some cases share a common winter 
quarters. 

But it seems by no means proved that the breeding quarters of a 
species is necessarily its real home, though it is undeniable that the 
present breeding quarters of a species produces the homing influence 
on spring migration, Seebohm (Geog. Dist. of the Charadriide) has 
already pointed out that it is possible that the present winter quar- 


MIGRATION——-MEINERTZHAGEN. 841 


ters of migratory birds breeding in northern latitudes coincide with 
the old breeding quarters of the same bird’s ancestors in the post- 
Pliocene glacial period. It seems probable that a species with a con- 
fined breeding area and an extensive range in winter had its original 
home in the confined breeding area to which it is most attached, for 
this area, is much more exact and local in influencing the bird’s life, 
and becomes the focus of its migrations. On the other hand, it may 
be that a species with a wide breeding range and a confined winter 
quarters was originally evolved in its present winter quarters, which 
retains the hereditary attraction due to the love of a bird for its old 
home. In this and in other ways geographical distribution, when 
closely studied, will be found to be most suggestive of a bird’s past 
migratory history. 

In this connection it is interesting to note that, though a particular 
form of bird chooses for its winter quarters an infinite variety of cli- 
mate, in most cases the breeding quarters in the breeding season show 
no great variation of climate, though these may cover a vast lati- 
tudinal area. 

The much-debated question of trinomials is outside the scope of 
this paper. The value, however, of subspecies to the student of 
migration is immense, and the more a species can be split into geo- 
graphical forms the easier becomes its migration problem and the 
determination of its correct geographical distribution. Throughout 
the southern part of the Palaearctic region we frequently find more 
than one form of a single species wintering in the same area, and with 
the help of subspecific differences, however small or distasteful to the 
conservative binomial ornithologist, we can at once recognize the 
breeding area of the bird in question and its probable migration route, 
provided we have reliable information regarding its geographical 
distribution. 

Geographical distribution includes, in the case of migratory birds, 
the breeding area, the winter quarters, and the routes of migration 
connecting these areas in spring and autumn. Very few species in 
the Palaearctic region can be classified as true residents throughout 
all seasons, though many might appear to fulfill the conditions of a 
resident species until their movements are closely studied. A disre- 
gard of the importance of a species’ distribution at all seasons has 
largely discounted the value of many ornithological works and 
papers, for the mere mention of a species occurring at a certain 
locality, without date or further detail, does not really advance our 
knowledge of the geographical distribution of that species, but rather 
confuses it and encourages misleading deductions. 

In writings on the birds collected in a certain area we frequently 
see a great amount of detailed description of the birds collected, their 

12573°—21——23 


342 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


wing measurements, etc., and, except for the number of specimens 
obtained and their sexes, no further detail. A rough guess can be 
made at the date of collection from the time of year during which 
the collection was made, but this even is often impossible. There is 
rarely any indication as to whether the species was common or 
whether the specimens collected were the only ones observed, whether 
the bird was resident, on passage, or in winter quarters. Again, how 
frequently the major value of a paper is lost by failure to grasp the 
importance of assigning subspecific value to those specimens which 
represent geographical races. The occurrence of the song thrush in 
Portugal is of little value without knowledge as to whether the bird 
is of the British or continental race; or, again, the passage of the 
redstart in Egypt or Palestine loses its importance without a deter- 
mination of its subspecific rank, which alone helps us in studying 
the bird’s distribution and migration. 

It is perhaps ungenerous thus to criticize the great efforts made by 
field and museum naturalists, but the writer himself being an 
offender in this respect, reference is made to this most important 
point in the hopes of stimulating further effort to gain the maximum 
results from the slaughter of such beautiful creatures as birds, to 
enable us to interpret correctly the many and varied facts with which 
nature presents us and to solve the complex problems of distribution 
and migration. No killing of birds can be justified merely to com- 
pile a list of species obtained in a certain locality. Careful field 
notes by the collector and an accurate determination of subspecific 
rank (where this exists) by the man who works out the collection 
can alone justify its formation. A mere list of birds hkely to be 
found in almost any part of the world could be compiled by any 
studious ornithologist in the library of the Zoological Society in 
Regents Park, without a visit to the locality in question and with- 
out taking the life of a single bird. 

Neither are we dealing with a science which is stationary. Geo- 
eraphical distribution and migration have been in the past, are now, 
and always will be fluctuating, sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes 
by leaps and bounds. The same applies to the geographical races of 
a species. As distribution and migration alter, so do subspecies 
become evolved, usually very gradually, but sometimes within the 
lifetime of man. But the problems remain constant, and the laws 
which govern these problems change but little. 

The extent of the geographical distribution or range of a species, 
on which largely hinges the differentiation in both species and sub- 
species, is due to— 

1. Gradual expansion or contraction. 

2. Periodic and regular migration. 


MIGRATION-——-MEINERTZHAGEN. 843 


38. Sporadic migration, invasion, or extensive wanderings. 

4, Human agency, direct or indirect. 

A few cases will be taken to illustrate these problems: which so 
closely link distribution; migration, and differentiation among birds. 


1. GRADUAL EXPANSION OR CONTRACTION. 


Birds have been known to gradually extend their range into every 
point of the compass, and it will probably be found that normal ex- 
pansion radiates from the bird’s original home. It is interesting 
to note that the Charadriidae are believed by Seebohm to have origi- 
nated in the north, and the swallows have been credited with an early 
home not far removed from the Tropics. 

But it is more recent and current movement which now concerns us. 

An example of gradual expansion to the south is well illustrated by 
the range of the crested lark (Galerida cristata and its subspecies) , 
whose original home was probably central and western Asia. This 
species has now amplified’ its distribution from France to Korea; 
and south to Sierra Leone and Senegambia, on the west coast of 
Africa, and Abyssinia and Somaliland, on the east coast; and to 
Ceylon. It would appear from an examination of this distribution 
that expansion has followed coast lines, which, as pointed out by 
Hartert (Novit. Zool., xx, 1913) p. 76), is a tendency not only among 
migratory but among such sedentary species as the white owl, chough, 
cirl bunting, and others. But here; in the case of Galerida cristata, 
we see expansion and differentiation progressing concurrently ; and 
there can be little doubt that the crested lark, a hardy species capable 
of residence in the snows of central Europe and Asia or in the heat 
of the Red Sea littoral, will not check its expansion till the Cape 
Seas arrest its progress. Its advent on the west coast of Europe is 
probably of comparatively recent’ date, for it has never established 
itself in Great Britain, though there can be little doubt it would have 
done so during the last century if its efforts had not been checked by 
the greed for rare birds. 

The shore lark (Lremophila alpestris flava), which in compara- 
tively recent times has become a common breeding species in Arctic 
Norway, affords a good illustration of gradual expansion to the west. 
At the same time as expansion of breeding range, these birds opened 
out a new line of migration about 1847 (Gaetke) and became a com- 
mon bird of passage at Heligoland in spring and autumn. This fact 
is of particular interest, as other northern species (Phylloscopus 
borealis borealis, Anthus gustavi, and Emberiza pusilla) have, in 
spite of westward extension of their breeding range, rigidly adhered 
to their ancient migration route and winter quarters in southeast 
Asia. Cooke (Migration of Birds, p, 6) further illustrates the 


844 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


phenomenon of westward extension in the bobolink, which species 
rigidly adhered to its ancient migration route though adding 1,000 
miles to its line of flight. 

Gradual expansion to the north can be found in the case of the 
greater spotted woodpecker in Great Britain and in the case of 
Passer moabiticus moabiticus. This latter bird, formerly confined 
to the south end of the Dead Sea, is now commonly found in the 
Jordan Valley at the north end of the Dead Sea and will doubtless 
extend to Galilee. 

Eastward expansion, though the example must be taken from out- 
side the Palaearctic region, is well illustrated by the gray parrot 
in equatorial Africa. This bird, formerly unknown much east of 
Uganda, has rapidly extended its range across the Mau Plateau and 
Rift Valley, and will ere long find itself on Mount Kenya and thence 
to the east coast of Africa. 

Gradual contraction of range from natural causes may be due to 
meteorological or climatic conditions. Gaetke (Birds of Heligo- 
land) quotes the erosion of the Heligoland cliffs as partly destroying 
the breeding haunts of the guillemot and razorbill. A cyclone in 
Mauritius almost exterminated the local species of martin. The 
sudden rising of water on an artificial lake in Baluchistan completely 
destroyed many dozens of nests of a grebe, together with many hun- 
dreds of their eggs, and the whole colony of breeding birds moved 
that night and have not since returned to that lake as a breeding 
species. 

Or contraction may be due to inability to establish a migratory 
habit, which we see after severe winters among some of our own 
resident forms; or to an insufficiently developed migratory habit, as 
with certain communities of redwings, fieldfares, and starlings, who 
perish in the south of England and Ireland in very severe weather 
rather than continue their passage to southwestern Europe, as do 
other communities of the same species who have developed an in- 
creased migratory line of flight. 

Or contraction may be due to expansion in range of some other 
species which becomes an evicting factor. The jackdaw is believed 
to have been largely responsible for driving the chough from the 
cliffs of southern and western England. The house sparrow, in ex- 
tending its range in Russian Turkestan, has supplanted the tree spar- 
row and has evicted the house and sand martin from many nesting 
haunts in England. The puffin has replaced the Manx shearwater 
in some of the islands of the inner Hebrides. 

Food supply will also contract the range of a species, though this 
is usually only a temporary inconvenience. 

Gradual contraction among nonmigratory species will eventually 
produce interrupted distributions, extermination, or isolation. Of 


MIGRATION—-MEINERTZHAGEN. 345 


the first of these conditions Sztta canadensis, occurring in Corsica, 
China, and America; Cyanopica cyanus, in Spain and Eastern Asia ; 
and Pyrrhocoraxz pyrrhocorax, with its reported isolated colony in 
Abyssinia, afford good examples. 

Tsolation will in its turn most assuredly produce differentiation. 
In these three above-quoted cases there can be little doubt that the 
isolated colonies emanated from the same parental stock and that 
they primarily emigrated from the same area. As in Mesopotamia, 
we find derelict remains of ancient civilization, such as the banks of 
some Babylonian canal, cropping up at sometimes great intervals, 
and only giving us a general clue to a once huge work, so we find 
among some species derelict groups or forms cropping up in widely 
separated parts of the world as landmarks of some bygone migra- 
tion or continuous distribution. 

Such gradual movements as are outlined above, when undertaken 
by what are commonly believed to be resident species, represent in 
fact incipient migration or movements from which a strong migra- 
tory habit has since developed in other species. 


2. PERIODIC AND REGULAR MIGRATION. 


We see periodic and regular migration effecting changes in breed- 
ing-area in certain species of Palaearctic birds. We find the bee 
eater (Merops apiaster) taking advantage of South African condi- 
tions and establishing breeding colonies there. (Stark and Sclater, 
Fauna of South Africa, Birds, iii, p. 59.) That this species breeds 
regularly in Algeria and Egypt is beyond question, and it seems pos- 
sible that it also breeds in the northern Sahara. (Novit. Zool., xviii, 
1911, p. 524, xx, 1913, p. 60.) It is not then surprising to find them 
nesting in South Africa, where conditions are more favorable than 
in north Africa. But it is not inferred that this bird breeds twice a 
year, once in its normal summer haunts and again in its winter 
haunts. It is more likely that the colonies which breed in South 
Africa are resident communities who have dropped the migratory 
habit as redundant to their life. 

Again, we find the sandpiper (Yotanus hypoleucus) nesting in 
tropical East Africa (Van Sommeren), and the writer observed the 
young of this species with their parents on the Kajiado River near 
Nairobi in 1915. The pratincole is reported to have bred in a colony 
near Durban in November, 1917 (Ibis, 1908, p. 385), Geoffroy’s sand 
plover is suspected of breeding in Somaliland (Archer), and the 
swallow (Hirundo r. rustica) in Uganda and on Kilimanjaro. 

It is held that these cases of expansion of the breeding range are 
directly attributable to migration, as they all occur among species in 
which the migratory instinct is strongly developed. Whether or no 


346 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


these instances are cases of incipient isolation remains to be seen. 
If this is the case, we shall get differentiation, as in the case of Cor- 
wus cornix, the hooded crow, which has two communities, in Egypt 
and on the Persian Gulf, both of which have lost the migratory 
habit, and one of which has assumed considerable differentiation. 

Tt has been stated (Eagle Clark, Migration of Birds, 1, pp. 15-17) 
that southern tropical regions are not suited as a nursery for the 
hardy northern birds, and if breeding were ‘cinetemgoees m such re- 
gions the species ieoald become extinct. . 

Facts do not entirely support this view, though doubtless it is true 
as a broad principle. We have already referred to the hooded crow, 
an essentially hardy northern species’ and one of the few birds re- 
maining in Arctic Norway in winter, as breeding under one form 
(Corvus capellanus) on the shores of the Persian Gulf, one of the 
hottest parts of the world and:eclipsing the heat of any part of 
tropical Africa, while yet another undifferentiated form is resident 
in Egypt and northern Sinai. We find a swallow (Hirundo savig- 
nit) breeding in Egypt, various forms of the white owl and kestrel 
throughout the Tropics of Asia and Africa, and other birds such as 
Saxicola torquata, the stonechat, with geographical races equally at 
home from the Arctic regions to Cape Town. 

All such distribution, as illustrated in this last paragraph, is due 
either. to gradual emigration or to a regular migratory habit at some 
remote period, and has depended for its success on the initial ca- 
pacity of a species to adapt itself to. new surroundings, which, was 
possibly a case of necessity in the earliest. attempt. 

In this connection it would be interesting to ascertain whether the 
same species, when nesting in tropical countries, lays fewer eggs in 
the clutch and rears more broods in the season than the same bird in 
more northern climes. The blackbird is said (Chapman, Wild Spain) 
to lay but three eggs in Spain, to raise three broods in Tangier 
(Favier), whilst. in the Canaries the local blackbird (Z'urdus m. 
cabrerae) lays very few eggs in the clutch. (Ibis, 1912, p. 597.) The 
wren (Zroglodytes), a prolific breeder in northern climes, appears 
to lay but four eggs in the normal clutch in Sicily. (Ibis, 1912, p. 
171.) Is such the case among other species which have tropical rep- 
resentatives? The point is submitted to! the many distinguished 
odlogists whose vast collections might help to solve the problem. 
Ts the normal clutch regulated by the capacity of the parents to feed 
the young (or water the young, in the case of sand grouse), or by the 
limits of brooding surface on the parent’s abdomen, or by the normal 
mortality in the species, or by what? Even such questions have in- 
fluence on migration and distribution, for it is by no means certain 
whether birds go to the Arctic regions for reproduction, on. ac- 
count of their ancient love for home, or to enable them to get suffi- 


PO es ed 


MIGRATION—-MEINERTZHAGEN. 847 


ciently long days to collect a satisfactory supply of food for their 
offspring, or whether merely because the Arctic regions offer a more 
prolific food supply than more southern regions. If either of the 
two latter causes are correct, we should expect to find the Charad- 
riidae and Anatidae which breed in the Tropics to lay fewer eggs in 
the clutch than those which breed in northern Europe. We know 
that a plethora of food reflects itself on reproduction (c. f. snowy 
owls and rough-legged buzzards in lemming years in Scandinavia, 
and the increase of hyenas after wholesale deaths among natives 
in East Africa). 


3. SPORADIC MIGRATION, INVASION, OR EXTENSIVE WANDERINGS. 


The well-known invasions of Syrrhaptes need no comment. That 
they would lead to eventual permanent colonization is almost cer- 
tain, but so far the species has never had a fair chance. There is 
no reason, however, why the wide distributions of Pterocles arenarius 
or P. senegallus should not have been initiated by colonization after 
sudden invasion, for the sand grouse as a group are essentially wan- 
derers in search of suitable and rather specialized food, seeming to 
pride themselves on erratic movement and ignoring any seasonal 
lines of flight, which, generally speaking, constitutes migration; 
though in some spots they are particularly regular on migration, as 
is the case with P. arenarius of northern India. 

The rose-colored starling, aptly described as a veritable gipsy 
among birds, gives us a further illustration of colonization (in Italy 
and elsewhere) after invasion; and the various subspecific colonies 
of the crossbill (Lowia curvirostra) in the Mediterranean region 
might equally be due to colonization after eruption at some remote 
date, as opposed to either gradual expansion or regular migration, 
though the accuracy of such a theory to account for their present dis- 
tribution is by no means certain. 


4. HUMAN AGENCY, DIRECT OR INDIRECT. 


The introduction of such species as the pheasant, goldfinch, and 
starling to various parts of the world will suffice to illustrate ex- 
pansion of range due to direct human agency. In the case of the 
goldfinch, we find in the Bermudes that the bird has already estab- 
lished for itself a differentiation entitling it to subspecific rank. In 
the case of the introduction of the starling to Cape Town, it is inter- 
esting to note that the species has abandoned the migratory habit 
and has become a pure resident, not even congregating into flocks in 
winter. 

Contraction of distribution under this heading is the sad story of 
extermination, being generally confined to species having a very 


348 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


local breeding area, such as the passenger pigeon, Esquimaux curlew, 
and Labrador duck, or to species, which, having a large range, are 
unable to resist slaughter at all seasons. Systematic egg stealing 
under the cloak of science, but which in reality is the travesty of 
science, is also responsible for such contraction of range, as in the 
case of so many birds which have within the last century ceased to be 
included among British breeding species. 

Indirect human agency has increased the breeding range of certain 
species, though only in a minor degree. The reafforestation of land 
and artificial sheets of water have, no doubt, helped in this manner, 
though in most cases it has been a case of reestablishment. The car- 
rying of migratory birds on ships comes under this heading. 

In like manner has interference with terrain, such as the draining 
of the fens, contracted the breeding range of birds. The introduction 
of a destructive element has had similar effect, as in the case of the 
arrival of the pig in Mauritius, which completed the sad fate of the 
dodo, or the great mortality among sea birds from the torpedoing 
of a tank steamer and the resultant film of oil spread over vast areas 
of sea. 

CONCLUSION. 


From these examples it will readily be seen how closely related are 
migration, distribution, and differentiation among birds. Without 
the framework of distribution the study of migration can only lead 
to theory. Each separate species or subspecies must be studied, if 
possible, throughout its range, and then we shall arrive at facts 
from which the whole narrative of migration can be read. No two 
species which have a similar geographical distribution are known 
to have similar migratory habits. We even get, among birds of the 
same species, vast differences in migratory habit, hence the great 
importance of detailed study. 

The task is gigantic, and though no one human life can hope to 
complete the work, a combined effort by all field naturalists and col- 
lectors, with the very great assistance supplied by the various organ- 
izations in Britain, America, and on the Continent for the study of 
local movement, not to mention that most valuable of all schemes, 
the “ ringing ” of birds, will go far to building up an edifice grounded 
on solid facts, whose completion we must leave to future generations 
of enthusiasts. 

Finally, it must be clear to any reader of this rather fragmentary 
paper that no exhaustive or complete study of the subject has been 
attempted. Many points connected with the relation between dis- 
tribution and migration have been merely suggested, in the hope that 
such preliminary mention will stimulate ideas on this, the most 
attractive phase of an absorbing science. 


THE NECESSITY OF STATE ACTION FOR THE PROTEC- 
TION OF WILD BIRDS. 


By WaAtteER E. Cottiner, D. Sc., F. L. S., M. B. O. U., 
Carnegie Fellow, and Research Fellow of the University of St. Andrews. 


Tt is now generally agreed that birds as a class are highly bene- 
ficial and function as an important natural force in the control of 
the many insects that attack agricultural crops, fruit orchards, and 
forests. Realizing this, many countries have enacted laws for their 
protection and preservation, whilst some maintain departments 
wherein their feeding habits, migrations, increase and decrease, and 
general movements are studied, with great benefit to their respective 
nations. 

The question is frequently asked, “ Why should the State interfere 
with wild life; why should not birds and all other wild animals be 
left alone? ” 

In order to give an adequate reply to this question it is necessary 
to consider at some length the activities of wild animals and their 
relationship to mankind. 

The nation or the individual who possesses objects of great value 
seeks by all legitimate means in their power to preserve such from 
wanton destruction or harm in any sense. Such action is highly 
commendable, for surely it is only right that anything that is con- 
ducive to the welfare of mankind and that we of the present genera- 
tion have the privilege of enjoying should, if possible, be handed 
down for the benefit and enjoyment of generations to come. It is 
the duty of the State, therefore, to guard and conserve most jealously 
every object that tends to the uplifting and advancement of its 
people, irrespective of whether such objects possess any direct utili- 
tarian value or not. 

In the case of wild birds we have both an esthetic and a utilitarian 
value attached to them. On the former we do not propose to dwell 
at any great length, for the love of wild birds is interwoven with our 
national life. In painting, statuary, poetry, and prose this is at once 
evident. We have associated with bird life purity, valor, fidelity. the 
love of freedom, and the exalting love of maternity. We have used 
the bird as the emblem of peace and contentment and to express the 


AI AEA SAE RTS SE GU AAS RUE DIRT TS A Uk CREE NS Sh Ee 
1Reprinted by permission from the Avicultural Magazine, Vol. X, 3d ser., No. 7, May, 
1919. 
349 


350 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


idea of grace and symmetry of form and of perfect adaptation to the 
environment. The song of birds—the “thousand blended notes,” 
as Wordsworth described it—has inspired the poets of all ages and 
countries, those of our own country being not the least. Some of the 
stateliest lines in English poetry refer to birds, as readers of Shake- 
speare, Shelley, Scott, Burns, Gray, Longfellow, and Tennyson will 
recall. The study of bird life has ever exercised an ennobling in- 
fluence, in consequence of which in certain countries efforts have been 
made to make it a compulsory provision of the education code to 
arrange for the study of birds in the public schools, and in a modified 
form to the original proposition one of the States of North America 
has enacted a law requiring every teacher in the public schools “to 
give oral instruction at least once a month * * * relative to the 
preservation of song birds, fish, and game.” Legislation of this kind 
undoubtedly marks the commencement of a phase in the public mind 
that is likely to assume greater importance in the near future. As 
a recent writer states: 

The systematic study of birds develops both the observational faculties and 
the analytical qualities of the mind. The study of the living bird afield is 
rejuvenating to both mind and body. ‘The outdoor use of eye, ear, and limb 
necessitated by field work tends to fit both the body and mind of the student 
for the practical work of life, for it develops both members and faculties. It 


brings one into contact with nature—out into the sunlight, where balmy airs 
stir the whispering pines or fresh breezes ripple the blue water. 


Very similar ideas are expressed by Forbush, who writes: 


There is no purer joy in life than that which may come to all who, rising in 
the dusk of early morning, welcome the approach of day with all its bird 
voices. The nature lover who listens to the song of the wood thrush at dawn— 
an anthem of calm, serene, spiritual joy sounding through the dim woods— 
hears it with feelings akin to those of the devotee whose being is thrilled by 
the grand and sacred music of the sanctuary. And he who, in the still forest 
at evening, harkens to the exquisite notes of the hermit—that voice of nature, 
expressing in sweet cadences her pathos and her ineffable mystery—experiences 
amid the falling shades of night emotions which must humble, chasten, and 
purify even the most upright and virtuous of men. 


On the utility of birds we might dwell at great length and then 
be far from exhausting the subject. Few of us have formed any 
conception of the influence they exercise upon our food supply and 
many products of industry. Here we must strictly confine our re- 
marks to their value as the guardians of our crops, our orchards, and 
our forests. How little do we realize what a potent factor for good 
wild birds are in this connection, what the sum total of their ceaseless 
activities means, and how intimately associated it is with the security 
of our food supply. Were it not for the benefits conferred by wild 
birds it would be impossible to successfully cultivate the majority of 
our crops, This statement may seem an extravagant one, but an 


PROTECTION OF BIRDS—COLLINGE. 851 


examination of a few instances will at once serve to show how true 
it is. 

We are all familiar with the greenflies on the rose and have some 
confused idea of their enormous fecundity. We probably call to 
mind Prof. Huxley’s computation of their amazing rate of increase, 
but few of us have ever seriously considered the potential danger of 
ereenflies with reference to our food supply. 

The late Prof. Riley, when ‘studying the hop aphis, observed 13 
generations of this species in a year. Assuming the average number — 
of young produced by each female to be 100 and that every individual 
attained maturity and produced its full complement of young, “the 
number of the twelfth brood alone (not counting those of all the pre- 
ceding broods of the same year) would be 10,000,000,000,000,000,- 
000,000 (10 sextillions) of individuals.” Such figures fail to convey 
any idea of the numbers, but dealing with these Prof. Forbush has 
pointed out that if these individuals were marshaled in line with 
10 to a linear inch and touching one another, “the procession would 
extend to the sun (a space which light traverses in eight minutes) and 
beyond it to the nearest fixed star (traversed by light only in six 
years), and still onward in space beyond the most distant star that 
the strongest telescope may bring to view, to a point so inconceivably 
remote that light could only reach us from it in twenty-five hundred 
years.” 

But there is scarcely a cultivated plant that is not attacked by one 
or more species of greenfly, or aphid, as the naturalist terms them. 
Of the trillion of billions that infest the apple, pear, plum, and cherry 
trees, and the hops, wheat, beans, turnips, cabbage, etc., what be- 
comes of them? They are eaten by the birds. Aphids in large quan- 
tities have been found in the stomachs of the whitethroat, the war- 
blers, the tits, the wren, the goldfinch, the chaffinch, the skylark, and 
numerous other birds; and the same remarks hold good with refer- 
ence to the insidious scale insects. 

Most insects do the greatest amount of damage during their larval 
or caterpillar stage; they feed voraciously, their daily consumption 
of food often exceeding many times the weight of their bodies. Se- 
lecting a familiar example, the yellow-and-chocolate marked cater- 
pillar of the currant or magpie moth, it requires about 170 of these 
to weigh an ounce; in their earlier stages, say, about 200. We have 
seen currant plantations infested: with these and by counting the 
number on one bush have estimated nearly 1,000,000 to the planta- 
tion, or a total of 24 hundredweight. Had these been left undis- 
turbed they would quickly have consumed the whole of the currant 
leaves and ruined the crop; but, thanks to the birds, they were de- 
duced to insignificant dimensions long ere they had an opportunity 
of devastating the bushes. And so it is with numerous other crops. 


352 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


We might continue to cite insect after insect and the birds that feed 
upon them, but one further case will suffice. 

Trouvelot, who introduced the gipsy moth into the United States 
of America, specially studied the American silkworm, and respecting 
its food and rate of growth he made numerous experiments. The 
rate of growth and the amount of food consumed are astonishing. 
Upon hatching from the egg, the caterpillar weighs one-twentieth of 
a grain; when 10 days old its weight has increased to half a grain, or 
ten times the original weight; when 20 days old it weighs 3 grains, or 
sixty times its original weight; when 30 days old its weight has in- 
creased to 31 grains, or six hundred and twenty times the original 
weight; when 40 days old it weighs 90 grains, or eighteen hundred 
times its original weight; and when 56 days old its weight has risen 
to 207 grains, or four thousand one hundred and forty times the 
original weight. 

When 30 days old this caterpillar will have consumed about 90 
grains of food, but by the time it is fully grown, namely, 56 days, it 
will have consumed not less than three-quarters of a pound of oak 
leaves. Thus the food taken by a single caterpillar in 56 days equals 
in weight eighty-six thousand times the original weight of the animal. 
Well might Longfellow say of the birds: 

They are the winged wardens of your farms, 
‘Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe, 
And from your harvests keep a hundred harms, 

In the interests of agriculture, fruit growing, and forestry surely 
the conservation of this wild life is worthy of State attention. We 
do not simply mean the passing of an act of parliament for the pro- 
tection of certain species, but a daily study of their habits and activi- 
ties and all their intricate relations to mankind. 

“But what about birds that are injurious?” If those that are 
beneficial should be protected, surely those that are injurious should 
be destroyed. Our knowledge as yet of the feeding habits of wild 
birds is so fragmentary that it would be dangerous to make the un- 
qualified statement that any species of wild bird is wholly injurious. 
Some are partly so, due in all probability to the fact that they are 
too numerous, as, for example, the house sparrow, the wood pigeon, 
the starling, etc., but there is reason to believe that if these species 
were much less numerous than at present the good they would do 
would more than compensate for any harm they might inflict. It is 
therefore incumbent upon the State to walk very warily when it pro- 
ceeds to withhold protection or to frame repressive measures for the 
destruction of any species. In a like manner the granting of protec- 
tion to a bird at present generally regarded as beneficial may lead to 
an undue increase in its numbers, and within a very short time it will 


PROTECTION OF BIRDS——COLLINGE. 353 


prove equally injurious. The problem is a most difficult one. Those 
who demand all-round uniform protection are equally as wrong as 
those who favor all-round destruction, and the State that listens to 
either side or allows such extravagant views to weigh in their delib- 
erations is amassing troubles for the immediate future. 

Only after a long and careful study can we arrive at a satisfactory 
conclusion. Experience shows that it is possible to learn with con- 
siderable precision the percentage of the different kinds of food. 
Let us take the case of the skylark. This bird requires about 6 pounds 
of food per year, “so that 10,000 birds would require about 27 tons 
of food in a year.” As we now know the percentages of food eaten 
by this species we can analyze this figure. Of the total food consumed 
in a year 35.5 per cent consists of injurious insects, 3.5 per cent of 
neutral insects, 2.5 per cent of beneficial insects, 9.5 per cent of grain, 
1 per cent of leaves, 2 per cent of earthworms, 1 per cent of slugs, 
1.5 per cent of miscellanous animal matter, and 43 per cent of the 
seeds of weeds. In other words 36.5 per cent of the food eaten is of 
benefit to the farmer, 50.5 per cent is of a neutral nature, and only 
13 per cent injurious. Thus we have a debit and credit account: On 
the former side we place the loss of 24 tons of cereals, and on the 
latter something like 30,000,000 injurious insects and 30,000 slugs. 
Such a plague of insects left to themselves would have destroyed 
many more tons of cereals, root crops, etc. Thus the farmer is un- 
doubtedly the gainer by an enormous tonnage of produce. 

The indiscriminate destruction of wild birds has led to serious 
insect plagues in many countries, so that any repressive measures 
must only be the outcome of very careful consideration founded upon 
long and accurate investigations such as the above. 

To provide against extermination, State reservations, as places of 
refuge, are necessary. Other countries have found such to be profit- 
able investments apart from protecting certain species of birds. 

The education of all who are connected with the land is another 
most important avenue for State activities if we are going to secure 
to generations yet unborn their birthright. 

The subject of bird protection is an exceedingly wide one and 
worthy of the attention of every enlightened community. “The food 
relations of birds are so complicated and have such a far-reaching 
effect upon other forms of life that the mind of man may never be 
able fully to trace and grasp them,” says Professor Forbush; but this 
must not be advanced as a reason why we should not steadily pursue 
our investigations of the subject, knowing how directly it affects 
mankind. If we do not we are jeopardizing our food supply, im- 
poverishing the land, and lagging behind in the progress of knowl- 
edge, and for such apathy and omissions nature will surely sooner 
or later demand just retribution. 


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GLIMPSES OF DESERT BIRD LIFE IN THE GREAT 
BASIN. 


By Harry ©. OBERHOLSER, 


Stretching far away to the westward beyond the slopes of the 
Rocky Mountains lies the country of the Great Basin, the great desert 
region of the United States. From Utah and Arizona it reaches 
north to Oregon, and west to the lofty barrier formed by the Cas- 
cade Range, the Sierra Nevada and the San Bernardino and San 
Jacinto Mountains. This whole vast area is an almost continuous 
desert, spreading indeed its powerful influence to the contiguous 
slopes of the mountains that guard its confines. Yet it is not all 
alike, for many of its parts differ widely in climate, physiography, 
vegetation, and animal life. Mountain ranges of varying height 
and extent, sometimes close together, sometimes with broad valleys 
- interposed, traverse the entire region, most numerously in Nevada 
where they are chiefly parallel, least so in parts of southeastern 
Oregon, extreme southeastern California, and southwestern Arizona. 
The loftiest of these are in central Nevada and in the Death Valley 
country of eastern California. The valleys and plains, often of 
great extent, are stretches of sand, gravel, or clay, with now and 
then the bed of an ephemeral lake conspicuously’ shown by its 
dazzling efflorescence of alkali. 

Rivers are few, the two most important being the Colorado, which, 
except for a small portion of its course, is hardly within the region; 
and the Humboldt, which, after following a tortuous course across 
Nevada, discharges its waters into the outletless Humboldt Lake, 
thus offering itself as a great but ineffectual sacrifice to the all- 
devouring aridity of the desert. There are some smaller streams, 
but most of them, aside from such as issue from the high mountains, 
are only dry washes except during seasons of rain. Springs, some 
of considerable size, occur in the hills and even out on the open 
desert ; while hot springs are to be found in a number of the valleys. 
Lakes, many of which, like so many of the streams, have but a 
transitory existence, yield some relief from the monotony of the 
broad expanses of parched land. Those that are permanent, with 
few exceptions, are in the northern part of the Great Basin, in 
Utah, Nevada, California, and Oregon. They are all shallow, 

355 


356 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


more or less salt or alkaline, have no outlets, and derive their sup- 
port chiefly from springs or short mountain streams. 

Heat and lack of moisture, which are the dominant features of the 
climate, increase markedly toward the south, and reach their ex- 
treme in parts of western Arizona and southeastern California, 
where a summer temperature of 100° to 120° in the shade is of almost 
daily occurrence, where the average aridity of the atmosphere is 
more than three times as great as in the eastern United States, and 
the annual rainfall, confined chiefly to the winter months, is only 
3 to 9 inches. 

Little of all this dreary and forbidding region lacks vegetation 
entirely, for only the mirage-haunted alkali plains and the barest 
rocky slopes of the seared desert ranges are shunned by the hardy 
desert shrubs. The bottoms of the valleys, the sloping or nearly level 
mesas, the sides of the hills and mountains are all clothed with a 
growth, sometimes scanty, sometimes wonderfully varied, of mes- 
quite, sagebrush, greasewood, cactuses, yuccas, or other similarly 
characteristic forms. The only trees worthy the name, except on the 
mountains, which rise partly beyond the arid influence of the valleys 
and support in places forests of pines, are the cottonwoods, and 
these are found only at springs or along streams. 

An environment apparently more uninviting to every form of 
animal life it would be hard io find; for the bare rocks, the reaches 
of sand, the pebble-strewn mesas, and the clay fiats incrusted with 
salt and alkali offer seemingly no protection or concealment; while 
the fiery heat, the desiccating air, and above all the lack of water 
appear hostile alike to all kinds of living creatures. Yet life there 
is, and relatively much; lizards of brilliant hues scamper about over 
the sand or lie on the rocks to bask in the sun; coyotes roam the 
plains by day and bark from the hills at night; rock squirrels and 
wood rats inhabit the cliffs; the little pocket mice and the singular 
kangaroo rats live in holes on the gravelly slopes or among the sand 
dunes; and many birds of many kinds are conspicuous almost every- 
where, as well in the summer as when during the seasons of migra- 
tion their numbers in species and individuals are greatly augmented. 
Only the bare and barren expanses of salt and allxali in the valleys 
are uninhabited, and even here at times some bird of strong flight 
may be seen soaring on lofty pinion above the inhospital region. 

The lakes of the region form the great attraction for most of the 
water birds and those that are usually termed waders, and furnish, 
too, along their sometimes marshy shores, a home for various other 
species. 

The American avocet, in its becoming attire of black, white, and 
cinnamon, is a conspicuous and characteristic figure about these 


DESERT BIRD LIFE—-OBERHOLSER. 857 


lakes, as in search of its food and insects and crustaceans it often, 
with wings half raised, daintily wades in the shallow water along 
the shores; or, having passed beyond its depth, rides out buoyantly 
upon the waves. Startled from its humble nest in the grass or rushes, 
the avocet employs all the arts and wiles known to the anxious parent 
bird in the endeavor to entice the intruder to a safe distance; and, 
even after the young have joined their elders on the beach, any threat- 
ened danger will bring the old birds about with loud cries and de- 
meanor almost as anxious as when the nesting haunts are invaded. 
The avocet is always a noisy bird, and, by its loud, reiterated notes, 
has earned the significant sobriquet of “ lawyer.” 

The black-necked stilt, trim and neat in its dress of black and 
white, and of even more distinguished appearance, is found almost, 
always intimately associated with the avocet. In habits it is quite 
similar to its companion, though less demonstrative, and in the 
shallow water it moves with slow, dignified, almost ludicrously cau- 
tious steps, pausing every now and then, with bill half immersed, as 
if meditating or listening. 

Many kinds of ducks—the mallard, gadwall, redhead, ruddy, and 
cinnamon teal—enliven the marshes as they pass to and fro in their 
businesslike way overhead or paddle about among the tules or out in 
the open water, sometimes alone in search of food, sometimes fol- 
lowed by their downy ducklings. The cinnamon teal is probably the 
most generally distributed of all the ducks that inhabit the Great 
Basin, for it is often to be seen at the springs, waterholes, and even 
wooden tanks in the midst of the desert, where scarcely do land birds 
find a congenial abode. 

In many of the more extensive marshes may be seen the beautiful 
Forster tern, a bird which, though of wide North American dis- 
tribution, is preeminently a denizen of the interior, and contentedly 
takes up its abode about many of the lakes of the Great Basin, 
undeterred by the heat and the drought of the desert, so foreign 
to its northern or eastern home. Graceful of flight as elegant 
of form, it is in its movements in the air a source of constant and 
fascinating delight to the observer. Starting from the stake, stump, 
or dead tree that may chance to be its resting place, it sweeps on 
easy wing low over the marsh, giving forth at intervals its harsh, 
cackling cry, or with bill pointed downward beats back and forth 
over the lake and the ponds looking for fish. But soon the eager 
eye has discerned its prey; the flight is arrested; with spreading 
tail and quivering wings the bird for a few seconds hovers in air; 
there is a quick plunge, a splash, and straightway the long, thin 
white wings rise with their burden, and the’ bird bears its booty 
away to young or mate. But “there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup 

12573°—21 24. 


358 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


and the lip,” as well in the life of a tern as of men, and many a 
poise, many a descent, even many a plunge, brings no other reward 
than the lesson of patience and perseverance. Among the tules and 
other rushes that frequently border the desert lakes the Forster 
tern may be found breeding, often in close-crowded colonies and on 
friendly and intimate terms with grebes, gulls, or other marsh- 
loving species. The nest is built up from the ground, often with 
some care, of reeds and flags and other water plants, with a lining 
of similar material. The approach of any intruder is well-nigh 
sure to arouse a clamorous outcry from the rising birds, which dash 
threateningly at him from above, but when near at hand swerve to 
one side and pass swiftly by and up again to repeat the performance. 

The well-known coot, in its somber dress of gray, with mask of 
startling white, frequents these ponds and lakes wherever there is 
promise of requisite seclusion. It moves unobtrusively in and out 
among the reeds that skirt the margins of the pools; and if at times 
it ventures more into the open, it is ever ready at the slightest alarm 
to seek the cover again. It may perchance be seen cautiously slip- 
ping away from its nest, on which it can scarcely ever be surprised ; 
or it may be found swimming about surrounded by its gaudily be- 
decked but sturdy and precocious infants. 

Tule Lake, in northeastern California, close to the western edge 
of the Great Basin, is a good example of the shallow, though some- 
what extensive, desert lakes. It is so named from the common dark- 
green, round-stemmed tule, or rush, which grows luxuriantly in the 
water about its margin, particularly at the northern end. This 
growth of tules reaches out in places fully a quarter of a mile from 
the shore, now intermittently, now in wide stretches unbroken save 
by small spaces of open water, and forms extensive marshes that 
attract myriads of birds. 

Among the waterfowl drawn to these marshes the western grebe 
is notable for size, dignity of appearance, and grace of carriage, as 
it lightly rides the water with head well poised and neck erect, and 
were it not commonly so retiring in disposition would much more 
frequently claim attention. Although it is able to fly well, its home 
is the water, and there in habit and action it is strikingly loonlike. 
It swims excellently even entirely submerged, or with but the head 
and the long bill protruding above the water, presenting then a 
strikingly serpentine appearance. Sometimes, when at rest on the 
water and seeking escape from observation, it may be seen to settle 
slowly lower and lower, as though drawn downward by an unseen 
force, till body, neck, and finally head sink out of sight, leaving not 
the suggestion of a ripple to disturb the mirrored surface of the 
water. Out in the lake, among the tules, it heaps up a rough-looking 


DESERT BIRD LIFE—OBERHOLSER. 359 


yet sufficiently substantial nest of the dead and floating vegetation, 
molds a depression in the top for the two or three eggs, and moors 
the whole securely to the upright stems of the growing plants or 
leaves it to drift at the impulse of wind and waves. 

A smaller, less sedate, more gayly attired species, the abundant 
American eared grebe lives in these great tule marshes in neighborly 
fashion with the western grebe, and builds a floating nest of typical 
grebe architecture, which is a familiar feature of the place. While the 
eggs are the object of her solicitude, the mother bird is always on the 
watch, and at the approach of any intruder hastily covers her treas- 
ures with the loose decaying vegetation of the nest and slips away; 
but later on, when the appearance of the little family has added to 
her maternal cares, she leads forth her vagrant brood to share with 
them the perils and the possibilities of the little world in which they 
move. 

Multitudes of ungainly, dark-bodied cormorants roam this lake. 
They are awkward enough on land, but perfectly at home on the 
water, and able to swim long distances below the surface. Their 
nests are coarse structures of sticks and tule stems, which occupy 
either convenient niches in the rocks or the branches of low trees, 
and are to be found near those of pelicans, gulls, and herons along 
the eastern side of the lake on rocky islets covered with a growth of 
small willows. 

Quite in contrast to the clumsy cormorant is the airy-winged black 
tern, whose name “water swallow” seems aptly chosen, for in its 
wonderful evolution as it courses the air after insects it recalls to 
mind most of all its smaller namesake of the land. Somewhat ex- 
clusive, too, is the black tern, and in its selection of a nesting place 
it withdraws to a separate part of the marsh. 

South of Smoke Creek Desert in extreme western Nevada, wellnigh 
completely surrounded by low mountains and fed by the clear, cool 
stream of the Truckee, is Pyramid Lake. It is one of the largest and 
deepest of the Great Basin lakes; and in places the shores are pre- 
cipitous, ascending sheer from the water, though seldom to great 
height, while here and there they are adorned with curious masses of 
calcareous tufa, fashioned into great domes or other strange forms. 
Two high, steep, rocky islands are conspicuous, and from the triangu- 
lar, pyramidal shape of the smaller the lake takes its name. 

To this body of water resort regularly and in numbers many species 
_ of shore birds and waterfowl, as well as land birds that have a fond- 
ness for bold cliffs near the water. A colony of California gulls oc- 
cupies part of the larger island; the clumsy white pelicans also live 
there, and, whether foraging daily along the shores and the marshes 
at the head of the lake or straggling back to pitch their nightly camp, 


860 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


they are picturesque and striking features of this wild scene; an oc- 
casional lonely great blue heron is to be seen, perchance passing to 
his immense nest on the rocks; the savage duck hawk makes frequent 
raids from his eyrie high up on an inaccessible crag; and multitudes 
of violet-green swallows skim the water’s surface or, hovering about 
the honeycombed cliffs, pass in and out to their nests like a swarm of 
bees. 

Southeastward beyond the low mountains that encompass Pyramid 
and Winnemucca Lakes there is a broad desert, the bed of an ancient 
lake, most of it level and marked by numerous alkali flats, hot, arid, 
and practically treeless save for the oases made by irrigation. Here 
are the “sinks” of the Carson and Humboldt Rivers, whose wide 
marshes, grown up to tules, flags, and rank grass, are alike in au- 
tumn, spring, and summer attractive to multitudes of birds. Strange- 
appearing white-faced glossy ibises, that move from place to place 
in flocks of often regular outline, much after the fashion of geese, 
line up along the shore or the edge of the marsh in their search for 
breakfast or dinner; night herons patrol the lagoons and the bayous 
by day and retire to the tops of the bushes or low trees at night; 
many kinds of ducks gabble over their possessions among the reeds; 
various wading birds pursue their wonted peaceful vocation on the 
flats; red-winged blackbirds chatter among the tules, or fly here and 
there in quest of food or nest material; and coots swim unconcernedly 
to and fro, unconsciously conspicuous in their gray plumage. A 
quiet contented community is here in this marsh in the desert, whose 
inhabitants live together in perfect harmony, and with rarely a dis- 
turbance from without. But sometimes that fierce marauder of the 
plains, the prairie falcon, appears on one of his forays. Then what 
a change! The varied voices are suddenly hushed; the blackbirds 
drop hurriedly into the rushes; the herons disappear; the ibises 
mount into the sky or cringe statue-like in their places; the shore 
birds scatter to the shelter that before they disdained; the ducks and 
coots scurry for their hiding places; and soon the place that just 
now was instinct with life and vocal with happiness is to every intent 
deserted by all except him that is the cause of the panic. Yet this 
dreaded intruder has learned by repeated experience not to advertise 
his coming, and possibly even now, as the signal of distress is being 
passed along, he has secured and is bearing away his victim. 

From these marshes on every side the level desert reaches far 
away to the hills, in places bare, but mostly covered with a sparse 
growth of low, thorny shrubs, tufts of salt grass, gray-green annuals, 
and bright green greasewood, the last the only relieving feature of 
the landscape. Along the bases of the hills are areas where the 
bushes, spreading often into miniature thickets, catch and hold the 


DESERT BIRD LIFE—OBERHOLSER. 861 


drifting sand until it rises into dunes and even at length com- 
pletely covers the vegetation within. Among these sandy heaps the 
curious long-tailed kangaroo rats hold nightly revels, watched, or 
perhaps joined, by the humbler pocket mice. By day, after his 
springtime return, the shy little black-throated sparrow, nothing 
daunted by his cheerless environment, flits about in the bushes or on 
the ground, chirping contentedly the while. Then, after he has found 
his mate, and the cosy little nest is growing in the midst of yonder 
shrub, he gives expression to his happiness in a song of quaint, sweet, 
tinkling notes that are strangely attractive and far-carrying in the 
still air of these desolate surroundings. Into these sandy wastes 
comes also the horned lark, here as everywhere throughout the Great 
Basin a frequent and characteristic figure. Singly, in pairs, or in 
small companies, it seeks the more open places among the dunes and 
the brush, and roams the stony or bare sun-baked plains, venturing 
at times even out upon the wide level wastes of snowy-white alkali 
that covers in places the hard, heat-seamed clay soil, where scarcely 
another living thing appears, and nothing meets the eye but the 
blazing sky, the hazy, quivering atmosphere, and the barren land- 
scape. Into such a furnace even the hardy desert inhabitants might 
well enter with timidity; but heat and aridity alike seem little to 
appall this pretty lark, for as it runs to and fro on the ground, or 
circles in towering flight like its cousin, the skylark, its cheerful twit- 
tering song appears to be just as happily an expression of its con- 
tentment here as in the beautiful, green, flower-strewn meadows of 
the far-away eastern country. From what few enemies it may have 
it is well protected by the colors of its plumage, whose browns and 
grays blend so perfectly and so marvelously with the surroundings, 
wherever in the desert the bird may chance to be, that to disappear 
from sight it has only to remain at rest. 

The low rocky hills, with their scant vegetation of small shrubs, 
which rise beyond the sand dunes, lack but little of being as un- 
inviting as the plains, yet the sprightly rock wren claims them as 
his own particular abode. Among the rocks, bowlders, and little 
ledges he may be found busy and active, and, though alert, not over- 
shy or suspicious. If started up from work or rest his quick, jerky 
flight to the nearest point of observation preludes a sharp, harsh 
note of interrogation and alarm, almost startling in its suddenness 
and volume, which degenerates into a prolonged sputtering scold, 
as the bird works himself into a ridiculous frenzy of voice and of 
action over what he doubtless regards as a wholly unwarranted and 
quite reprehensible intrusion. But his is an acquaintance that may 
well be cultivated, for once we are in his confidence he is found to 
be more than ordinarily interesting; he will sing for us, and this 


362 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


performance is by no means monotonous or unattractive; or, con- 
fiding in our friendship, he may even lead us to the spot where, 
protected under an overhanging ledge or hidden away in a crevice 
of the rocks, is his little home. His lot, with several voracious 
mouths to feed in this all too barren land, might readily seem to be a 
hard one, but this is only apparent, for the desert yields to the patient 
toil of this little worker far more than falls under the gaze of the 
passing traveler. 

A region of dry hills and vales, with occasional mountain ranges, 
succeeds the Carson Desert on the east, extending, with scarce an in- 
terruption more important than broad valleys, all the way to Utah 
and the Great Salt Lake. Typical desert vegetation covers this 
whole area: greasewood and other thorny shrubs in the lower val- 
leys and on the hot slopes; sagebrush on the higher ground; and on 
many of the hills scattered junipers, which with their deep color give 
a little more variety to a needy landscape. 

Characteristic forms of bird life, too, are here to be found. 
Haunting the cliffs, the canyons, and the rocky slopes, wherever its 
fancy dictates, the Say phoebe becomes almost an essential part of 
the scene, and many a time, though out of sight, announces its pres- 
ence far up the hillside by a tremulous, mournful call. Perched often 
on some commanding outpost of the cliff, or on even so humble a place 
as a fence-post by the roadside, it makes frequent sallies into the air 
in pursuit of its prey, or at times, as it seems, simply in sport. It 
nests usually in some niche along the cliff, on a little shelf in some 
cave, in an old well, or about the timbers of an abandoned cabin, 
much after the manner of the familiar eastern phoebe. 

Few birds are more characteristic of the chaparral throughout. 
this region, and in other parts of the Great Basin as well, even toward 
the south, than the white-rumped shrike. Sinking from the sum- 
mit of the bush on which it may happen to rest, it passes in rapid, 
undulating, well-sustained flight through or barely above the brush, 
its gray and white particolored plumage curiously suggestive of the 
mockingbird. Quite as individual a trait as its flight is its almost 
motionless pose on the top of a bush or post, where it waits and 
watches with seemingly limitless patience. But let an unwary grass- 
hopper cross its vision, or even a thoughtless little sparrow venture 
too near, and instantly it dashes away in pursuit of the intended 
prey. Ruthless, cruel, and wasteful it is, and has fairly earned 
the reputation that its name “butcher-bird ” implies; for, not content 
with killing for use, it carries on the work of slaughter as long as 
opportunity remains, and, after its appetite is sated, impales its fur- 
ther victims upon the long thorns of the desert shrubs or the barbs 
of the wire fences. Nor is this, even in such a land of famine, a wise 


DESERT BIRD LIFE—-OBERHOLSER. 868 


provision against future need, as might naturally be supposed, for 
seldom does the shrike return to these relics of its former successes 
save only in passing on some new foray. Its nest may be found hid- 
den away in some bush, guarded by a veritable chevaux-de-frise of 
branches and formidable thorns; and if eggs or young are there the 
parent is well-nigh sure to appear close at hand in vigorous defense 
of its own, ofttimes approaching with apparent loss of all fear, 
scolding energetically the while. 

Attractive alike in song, bright dress, and confiding ways, the 
house finch is particularly welcome in the desert. About the cliffs 
and rocky slopes, or among the cottonwoods along the streams, it 
is not less at home than when it comes around the ranch house or 
frequents the streets of the town with all the familiarity of the well- 
known house (English) sparrow. Though thus in some of its habits 
similar, yet it has few of the obnoxious traits of that pest. It builds 
its nest and rears its young about the house, under the eaves of 
sheds or barns, in walls, caves, or in any such place that gives prom- 
ise of requisite convenience. Pleasant indeed it is, at early morn- 
ing, ere the heat of the day has dried up the fountain of action, to 
stroll along at the foot of the rocks down to some tree-sheltered 
spring in the desert, and to hear from all around the many voices 
of the birds, as led by the house finch they join in matin chorus; 
an experience that seems not a little unexpected, and strangely at 
variance with the surroundings, but which for this reason all the 
more strongly emphasizes the thought it suggests, that contentment 
is a condition of mind rather than of environment—that the house 
finch is happy in spite of his living in the desert. 

The bright starry night of the desert has its birds as well as the 
day. Scarcely has the darkness begun to fall before the poorwill 
may be heard mournfully calling from over the valley, or seen in the 
deepening twilight seeking the margin of the water or an open place 
in the brush in pursuit of its insect prey. Very like a huge moth 
it is, as it glides low on noiseless wing, flutters for an instant, drops 
to the ground and is lost to view. Owls, little and big, from time 
to time hoot in the hills. Among them is the giant great horned owl, 
whose nest may here be found perched on a crag, for the exigencies 
of a treeless country compel recourse to unusual nesting sites, and, 
like the large hawks, the owl takes to the rocks. 

In the wider and higher valleys and on the far-extending plains 
where the “everlasting” sagebrush prevails, here but nowhere else 
the renowned sage grouse makes its home. Secure in the excellent 
protection that the brush affords, the bird rarely takes flight at the 
advance of a possible enemy until closely approached, when with a 
loud whirr it rises with apparently great effort until the tops of the 


364 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


bushes are cleared; then on powerful wing it travels swiftly and far, 
at length sailing like the prairie hen and disappearing over a knoll 
or down into the monotonous expanse of sagebrush. At the nuptial 
season the curious actions of the male draw more than casual atten- 
tion, as with tail spread, neck and fore-breast enormously inflated 
and thrown forward till they brush the ground, he moves pom- 
pously about. Besides the sage grouse, the sagebrush country has 
other avian inhabitants; the abundant, widely distributed lark 
sparrow starts up all along the roadside, displaying its prettily pat- 
terned tail as it flies, or from over in the brush regales the listener 
with its varied song; the more humble Brewer sparrow sings its 
melodious little lay, or, perhaps, too anxious, betrays the secret of 
its home in some near-by bush; the sage sparrow, becomingly at- 
tired in black, white, and gray, flits through the shrubbery or runs 
rapidly along the ground; the trim green-tailed towhee skulks 
elusively, almost mouse-like, under the bushes, or from some hidden 
perch sends forth its rhythmical notes; and the sage thrasher may 
be heard in vivacious song, or perchance seen unobtrusively leaving 
its well-hidden nest. 

In the grass or rushes bordering the springs and ponds the little 
western savanna sparrow is often to be found at home, and among 
the tules or in the thickets along the streams the western yellow- 
throat and the song sparrow find congenial surroundings, though 
neither is by any means so common as in the East. 

The wide expanse of the Great Salt Lake, its mountainous islands, 
its muddy or stony shores, the level lands along its borders, white 
with salt and alkali, and the fields in the valley, made fertile by the 
magic of irrigation, have each a particular attraction for birds. 
Graceful terns, ducks of many kinds, together with grebes, among 
them the pied-billed, frequent the open water or the marshes, while 
multitudes of wading birds range the beach and spread out over the 
flats. Down by the margin of the lake, over the meadows and the 
marshes, the bittern heavily files, or stalks about in dignified, secre- 
tive, yet apparantly nonchalant way, pausing now and then to utter, 
with curious, not to say painfully ridiculous, contortions, its hollow, 
strangely resonant notes, but ceasing and turning to a statue well- 
nigh invisible at the slightest hint of danger. The wild-eyed, wild- 
voiced, wild-mannered long-billed curlew guards its preserve along 
the lake with jealous care, and at any act of trespass pours forth a 
torrent of abuse that is intended to be very threatening, but under the 
circumstances is vastly amusing. There are bright-plumaged orioles 
in the cottonwoods; sparrows and yellow-throats in the thickets along 
the sloughs; house wrens about the dwellings; western meadowlarks 
that rise from the meadow where the bobolink soars and sings; and 


ee a 


DESERT BIRD LIFE—-OBERHOLSER. 365 


big Swainson hawks that come and go high up in the blue ether. 
Some of the rocky islands that ascend precipitously hundreds of feet 
from the surface of the lake, dry and barren as for the most part they 
seem to be, support a bird population by no means inconsiderable, for 
here, among many, are the house finch; the brush-loving sage 
thrasher; those birds of the chaparral—the black-throated, Brewer, 
and lark sparrows; the well-known catbird of eastern thickets; the 
horned lark; the modest little flycatcher; the white-rumped shrike; 
and that lovable little songster, the warbling vireo. 

The stranger in these deserts is at once impressed with the pallid 
vegetation, so fully in keeping with all around; but in the southern 
part of the Great Basin—in extreme southern Nevada, western Ari- 
zona, and southeastern California—this monotonous color tone is 
relieved by the dark, rich green of the shiny, resinous leaves of the 
handsome creosote bush, and in places by the great tree yuccas, whose 
branches, spread in strange, even fantastic, shapes, support a massive, 
spiny foliage. 

Here, out in the brush, lives the Gambel partridge, often in great 
numbers. Ordinarily, if venturing from its chosen cover, it is ever 
alert for the signal of danger; but if unmolested it becomes in due 
time and place so unsuspicious that it is scarcely alarmed even when 
the passer-by is near at hand. The ash-throated flycatcher, unob- 
trusive, yet by reason of its abundance, conspicuous, is one of the 
most distinctive birds of the desert, and its mildly strident call is 
one of the common sounds. 'The active and excessively shy Leconte 
thrasher is far more difficult of acquaintance than some of its neigh- 
bors, but its delightful song and odd, interesting ways abundantly 
repay the painstaking observer. The cactus wren is particularly 
fond of the great tree yuccas and the tall cactuses, where his rough, 
globular nest is so much in evidence; but, modest architect that he 
is, he presents to view not himself but only his work. The far- 
famed mocking bird, too, so oft proclaimed the prince of singers, 
here “wastes his sweetness on the desert air,” but finds hardly so 
congenial a dwelling place as in some other climes. The Costa 
humming bird, midget though it is, defies the heat and the drought 
of the desert, living here in apparent happiness and comfort; the 
little yellow-headed verdin fashions its curious retort-shaped nest 
in the bushes, and, more provident than some of its fellows, repairs 
the same one for winter use or builds another; in the canyons lead- 
ing into the hills and the mountains, where the strikingly attired 
phainopeplas congregate to chat and eat and the cliff swallows are 
busily engaged in their household cares at the colonies of their 
closely crowded homes on the rocky walls, the sweet-voiced canyon 
wren fills the air with ringing melody or, exulting in its impreg- 


366 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


nable fortress, flings down a note of taunting defiance; the golden 
eagle, holding himself sternly aloof from his neighbors, wheels about 
his eyrie on the crag or, leaving it behind, soars majestically out 
over the valleys; and the Texas nighthawk, in its pursuit of insect 
prey, silently at dusk haunts the vicinity of the springs and lakes 
and streams. 

Few places there are in this or any other country where desert 
conditions are more intensified than where, walled in by ranges of 
barren, mountains and partly below the level of the sea, lies the 
famous Death Valley of California. Yet even here bird life is not 
wanting. The ubiquitous killdeer frequents each pool and stream 
and little marsh, and by its petulant cries, at times continued far 
into the night, makes itself known. The mourning dove, common in 
all the great West, is here so regular a visitor to the springs that 
its presence betokens almost with certainty the nearness of water. 
Here, too, that strangest of all strange birds of the desert, the road- 
runner, though shy and retiring, betrays itself now by tell-tale foot- 
prints in the sand, now by occasional distant fugitive appearances 
as it runs among the bushes or, with head and tail erect, pauses mo- 
mentarily to survey its surroundings. The rough-winged swallow 
is found about the springs; the least vireo in some of the lower 
mountain canyons; once in a while a kingfisher wanders over 
into the valley; the powerful-winged white-throated swift comes 
down from its inaccessible home in the cliffs to hunt in the low 
country; vultures appear at times in search of their grewsome re- 
past; and the hoarse croak of that sombre-hued bird of ill omen, the 
raven, is a familiar and peculiarly suggestive sound in this valley 
of solitude and death. 


THE DIVISION OF INSECTS IN THE UNITED STATES 
NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


By J. M. Awpricy, 
Associate Curator. 


[With 15 plates.] 
HISTORY. 


The insect collection of the National Museum owes its beginning to 
Dr. C. V. Riley, who became Chief of the Division of Entomology 
in the Bureau of Agriculture in 1878. He brought with him from 
his nine years of great activity as State entomologist of Missouri a 
good working collection of the insects commonly met with at that 
time in economic work, as well as many others accumulated along 
with them. The Riley collection was formed with a very distinct 
practical object; as a standard with which to compare insects en- 
countered in the daily work of an economic entomologist, in order 
to find out the extent of distribution of injurious forms, or to be 
sure that specimens referred to him for name were really the same 
as those which had proved to be injurious or beneficial. This sort of 
work, very elementary at first, gradually took on a more specialized 
character as the number of insects important in agriculture increased 
with the growth of economic entomology. The few assistants on 
Riley’s staff took up various groups of insects for study in their avail- 
able time, and by collecting added largely to what had been origi- 
nally brought to Washington. In 1882 Riley deposited the collec- 
tion for safekeeping in the National Museum (old building), and was 
designated honorary curator of entomology on the Museum staff. 

In 1886, in consideration of the appointment of an assistant curator 
to be paid from Museum funds, Riley formally transferred the whole 
insect collection, then numbering some 115,000 specimens, to the 
Museum; as before, however, it continued to receive the attention 
of specialists in the division, and to serve the same economic pur- 
poses. The assistant chosen was John B. Smith, of Brooklyn, who 
remained about three years and then became State entomologist of 
New Jersey. After his departure the position was unfilled, but 
Martin Linell was appointed aid, continuing in this grade until his 
death in 1896. 

367 


368 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Until Riley came to Washington the policy of the National Museum 
had been to distribute the entomological collections received to 
various specialists and to maintain no national collection of insects. 
Riley’s predecessor, Townend Glover, had preserved specimens only 
for illustrating and identifying them; in consequence his remarkable 
work left but little impression upon the national collection. 

Upon the foundation laid in 1886 as above indicated, the insect 
collection of the Museum has grown by the addition of material from 
many sources. The principal collections acquired through Riley’s 
influence (up to 1895) were those of the following collectors: 

John B. Smith (mostly Lepidoptera and Coleoptera). 

Martin L. Linell (Coleoptera). 

G: W. Belfrage (miscellaneous insects, mostly from Texas, but including 
Palaearctie Coleoptera and Hymenoptera). 

H. K. Morrison (miscellaneous insects from Georgia, the White Mountains 
of New Hampshire, and the West; many named Coleoptera). 

Asa Fitch, first State entomologist of New York (miscellaneous insects, with 
some types acquired long after his death). 

Cyrus Thomas, State entomologist of Illinois (grasshoppers). 

S. W. Williston (type collection of Syrphidae). 

Geo. Marx (spiders and other arachnids). 

C. H. Bollman (myriopods). 

The sudden death of Riley in 1895, and the appointment of Dr. 
L. O. Howard, his successor in the Agricultural Department, as honor- 
ary curator in the Museum, was another point of importance in the 
history of the collection. Simultaneously with Howard’s appoint- 
ment several of his economic staff were designated as custodians in 
the Museum: Coquillett in Diptera, Ashmead in Hymenoptera, and 
Schwarz in Coleopterous Larve. O. F. Cook, of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, was made custodian of myriopods. The meaning 
of these appointments was that the men were recognized as authori- 
ties in the groups under their charge, and were expected, while con- 
tinuing on the pay roll of the Agricultural Department, to give much 
of their time to identifying insects sent in to the department; and in 
the intervals of this work they were to classify, improve, and increase 
the collections. 

The entomological work of the Department of Agriculture in- 
creased rapidly from about this time; what had been called the 
Division of Entomology became a bureau shortly after. Its field 
stations with an enlarging number of workers brought ever larger 
quantities of material to Washington for identification, and this 
compelled a gradual increase in the number of custodians. In 1898 
H. G. Dyar was put in charge of Lepidoptera; in 1899 Schwarz was 
given Coleoptera, and Banks, Arachnida. Others were added later. 
The completion of the new National Museum in 1908 afforded room 
for the staff, and the collections were segregated and placed in 


DIVISION OF INSECTS—-ALDRICH. 369 


several rooms. W.H. Ashmead was assistant curator from 1898 to 
1907, H. G. Dyar for a few months, and J. C. Crawford from 1908 
to 1911, and associate curator to 1919. 

Under the administration of Dr. Howard, the principal collections 
added up to 1900 were the following: 

The Hubbard and Schwarz collection, mostly Coleoptera and their 
larve; this was accompanied with the entomological library of the 
donors, rich in complete sets, which formed the foundation of the 
present library of the division. 

The southern California collection of D. W. Coquillett, comprising 
mainly Diptera and Coleoptera, with some important Hymenoptera. 

Additions since 1900 have been numerous and important, especially 
in Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera; but the limits of 
space forbid continuing the analysis further at present. 

A few lines may, however, be given to foreign collections, in which 
the beginnings have been in general more recent. Some named for- 
eign material was included in several of the collections noted above. 
In 1905-6 Busck and Knab collected in tropical North America un- 
der a grant from the Carnegie Institution, mosquitoes being the pri- 
mary object, though insects in other orders were also secured in some 
numbers. In 1907 Busck collected in the Canal Zone under the 
auspices of the Canal Commission. In 1911 the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution made a biological survey of the Canal Zone, in which Busck 
and Schwarz participated, Busck continuing the work the next year. 

In the butterflies and moths of tropical America the Museum be- 
gan to receive named material from William Schaus in 1901, the 
result of his own expeditions; his life work in this field has been 
generously devoted to the Museum, in recognition of which he was 
in 1919 made honorary assistant curator of insects. 

Dr. W. L. Abbott began sending to the division his collections from 
tropical Africa and Asia as early as 1890, and has continued to the 
present, his many shipments running well into the thousands of 
specimens. 

The custodians of various orders have in the last 20 years given. 
increasing attention to exchanging as a means of acquiring named 
foreign insects, and through this method there is a constant growth 
of the foreign collection. The almost inconceivable number of kinds 
of insects in the world makes the undertaking a slow one, even to 
achieve here and there, for limited groups and for limited parts 
of the earth’s surface, something approaching completeness. 


FUNCTIONS. 


The Division of Insects, as will appear from the preceding histor- 
ical sketch, is organized on a cooperative basis. The Bureau of En- 
tomology of the Department of Agriculture, which employs a very 


370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


large staff of entomologists in economic work throughout the United 
States, concentrates here the work of identifying the vast number 
of insects that are sent in. Such sendings come in large part from 
its own agents, but almost as many come from officials of the State 
experiment stations, and no small number originate with the general 
public. The staff of trained specialists which does this indispensa- 
ble work is furnished by the Bureau of Entomology, which also turns 
over to the Museum each year some thousands of insects that have 
been reared or collected by its agents in the course of their investi- 
gations... The Museum, on its part, provides an associate curator 
and two preparators, and working quarters for the staff, as well 
as furniture and fixtures, insect cabinets, and entomological sup- 
plies generally. The older specialists are designated by the Museum 
as honorary custodians of the various groups (several have been do- 
ing this work for periods of time extending from 15 to 40 years) ; 
they give such portions of their time as are not required in identifi- 
cation work to the general improvement and classification of the 
collection. 

This system has resulted in the accumulation of a large and well- 
classified collection of the insects of the United States. Something 
has been done in getting together the insects of other countries also; 
but considering the enormous number of kinds of insects existing in 
the world, the foreign collection is still comparatively very small, 
and its increase is considered one of the foremost needs of the 
division. 

The economic importance of having a large and well-classified 
collection of foreign insects might not be evident at first glance, but 
can be easily demonstrated. 

Almost all the first-class insect pests that we have are foreign in 
their origin. Many have been traced back to very nearly the exact 
time and place of their entrance within our borders. A few of these 
may be cited to emphasize the point. 

The gipsy moth, which has done great damage in New England, 
and is a source of some hundreds of thousands of dollars of expense 
every year, was introduced from Europe in 1869. The brown-tail 
moth, in the same region of the United States and only a little less 
injurious and expensive, came from Europe in 1893. The pink boll- 
worm of cotton, for the eradication of which an elaborate campaign 
has been carried on for several years, was introduced from Egypt 
by way of Mexico, reaching the edge of the United States in 1915. 
The European pine sawfly (pl. 10) came into New England about 
1914. The Japanese peach moth? came from Japan about 10 years 
ago. The European corn borer, which is making its way westward 


1The Museum also receives material additions every year from the Bureau of the 
Biological Survey. 


DIVISION OF INSECTS—ALDRICH. 371 


from the Atlantic coast, was introduced about four years ago. The 
—eotton-boll weevil came from Mexico about 1892. The European 
pine-shoot moth was introduced about 1918. The Japanese beetle 
was discovered in New Jersey in 1916, and at present an expensive 
campaign of extermination is in progress, financed jointly by the 
State and the Federal Government. 

To prevent other dangerous introductions, the Federal Horticul- 
tural Board was established a few years ago; among other activities, 
it has a system ot inspection of vessels and cargoes at seaports. In- 
sects found therein are sent to the staff at the Museum to determine 
whether they are likely to be of sufficient importance to justify con- 
demnation proceedings or quarantine against shipments. Hence in 
the last analysis the Museum staff decides this vital question. But 
how are they to know? Evidently the efficiency of their work de- 
pends very much upon having access for purposes of comparison to 
a well-classified collection of the insects of the country involved. 

Aside from the very direct economic object just mentioned, the 
study of insect life from a world viewpoint is desirable for another 
reason. ‘The distribution of existing species of animals and plants 
throughout the world has been determined by the evolution of life 
under the conditions prevailing in the past and present. The laws 
of evolution can only be determined by prolonged study of existing 
and extinct forms. These laws must be of great importance to 
humanity; how great only the future can disclose. When Darwin, 
before publishing his Origin of Species, spent more than 20 years in 
patiently collecting the facts which would convince the world of the 
truth of his principle, he did not stop to calculate whether his work 
would have any economic results. He was interested in getting at 
the truth. Yet the most far-reaching benefits to humanity have come 
from the acceptance of the evolution point of view and more are to 
be expected as a fuller understanding of the laws of life is attained. 
Most of what we now know about human heredity has been entirely 
reorganized and given new significance through discoveries made by 
breeding experiments on certain flies (Drosophila). ‘There are other. 
great possibilities in the study of the lower forms of life. And in 
this study national lines have no existence; a world viewpoint is the 
only scientific one. 

Adding to these considerations the further one that insects offer 
innumerable illustrations of exquisite beauty (as shown in slight de- 
gree by the colored plates accompanying this article), it may justly 
be said that there are reasons economic, scientific, and esthetic for 
the building up in the Nation’s capital of a world collection of in- 
sects. This is the primary function of the Division of Insects. 

_?2 While this article was in preparation a specialist in the Museum identified another 


Japanese moth from within the United States for the first time, and it is now under 
further investigation, 


372 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Allied to this and almost a part of it, the Museum should furnish 
such conditions of safe preservation that private collectors would 
make it the ultimate repository of their collections. It is an indica- 
tion of progress in this direction that the describing entomologists of 
the country are quite largely sending in their type material, or at 
least paratypes, without waiting to put the gifts in the form of a 
bequest. 

To make its valuable material available to advanced students under 
regulations, liberal yet consistent with the permanent preservation 
of the specimens, is a third function. A large number of entomolo- 
gists visit the Museum each year to study the collection. 

To promote a popular interest in its field through exhibits, lectures, 
etc., is another very clear function. Owing to the fact that the per- 
sonnel of the division is almost entirely derived from the Department 
of Agriculture and has duties primarily economic, but little has yet 
been accomplished in the direction last indicated. 


INSTALLATION. 


The Division of Insects now occupies eight rooms on the third floor 
of the New National Museum Building, with a total floor space of 
6,150 square feet. The space assigned to the various orders is in- 
dicated on plate 1. 

The pinned collections are kept in steel cabinets, constructed in 
units holding 50 glass-covered drawers in two columns of 25, each 
column having two detachable steel doors (pl. 2). The drawers 
are about 18 inches square, and are finished in two styles. In one 
case they are lined with compressed cork and the pins are inserted mn 
this in the usual way; this method is used for butterflies and moths, 
dragon flies, and some other large insects. In the second style the 
drawer is unlined, but is filled with four columns of deep pasteboard 
trays of uniform width and multiple-unit length, which are cork- 
lined. Each species is kept in a tray by itself, which can readily be 
lifted out for study or for rearrangement; the number of specimens 
on hand of the species determines the length of the tray used for its 
reception. 

Alcoholic material is kept in vials in tin-bottomed trays, labeled 
on the end. 

Microscope slides are used for preserving lice, fleas, and some other 
groups where the size is small, as well as for extensive collections 
of dissected genitalia, other anatomical preparations, cast larval 
skins, mosquito larve, etc. This method of mounting seems to be 
increasingly in favor for small insects as higher powers of magnifica- 
tion gradually come into use. 

Type material is recorded under a serial number, which is the 
same for all the specimens of a species. Each specimen bears a red 


DIVISION OF INSECTS——ALDRICH. 373 


label with this number, and the word “ Type,” “Allotype,” or “ Para- 
type.” In the Division of Insects the record of these numbers is in 
the sixth volume, and includes 22,969 numbers. 


INVENTORY. 


In 1886 Riley estimated the collection which he transferred to the 
Museum at more than 115,000 specimens. In his report for 1894 he 
estimates that the collection contained 45,000 species of insects, repre- 
sented by 610,000 specimens. In 1901 Dyar announced by actual 
count 16,653 species and 129,789 specimens in the Lepidoptera. In 
1905 in a special report Schwarz estimated the Coleoptera at 30,000 
species. There appear to be no other estimates on file until June, 
1919, when an effort was made to get an inventory of all the orders. 
On account of the magnitude of the task and the shortage of workers 
in some orders it was necessary to make estimates rather than abso- 
lute counts in some cases; these, however, were made from examina- 
tion and are conservative. In summarizing below the results by 
orders, the items are reduced to two—the number of named species 
and the total number of specimens. Of these the former is by far the 
more significant, as a specimen may be anything from a duplicate 
housefly to a moth which a generous benefactor purchased for $100 
and presented to the Museum. In groups where single specimens are 
likely to have little value the figures have, however, been reduced to 
a very conservative basis—in scale insects, for instance, only speci- 
mens mounted on microscope slides are included. 


Summary of collection, June, 1919. 


Order. Rane spec Order Scones. speci 
Mhysanura oS sss. 2-2 oee 1100 ¥700)|, Orthoptera 222222222255 -22 22-2 2,556 25, 988 
Odlonat aes. Meee! LS cts 705 16,642) | Hemiptera. 3050.84) 13,876 | 1244, 637 
ESODLCE Asse cea Wesel ososes 173 | 1100,000 || Lepidoptera.............-.-.-. 30, 653 275, 920 
Ephemerida.......-.-----.--- Di ptera-weewe ee ee 10, 253 210, 880 
PlCCopiet avec esse tase ae Siphonaptera-....---- 1) chet 1130 1 432 
Cormodentiajs. ses -ce <2 see 647 14.721 Coleoptera-/s0.5. 2.2 132,500 | 1738, 000 
Mecopterans. sce. 522s: : Hymenoptera......-.---.---- 17,638 | 493, 757 
richopterassce ie -/5 aie = 2\s- Thysanoptera...---.--------- 200 750 
INGUBOREREAS Sc. sa ciaticis see ce Strepsiptera.......-.-.---.-.. 159 414 
Matlophara ses. see ise. se5cc 1125 11, 250 Ra eeu eealene GLE che 
Dermaptera RaALge seesiAs ha PL Ma ee 180 1, 098 Tobale. 22222222822. 22 98, 925 2, 125, 189 


1 Estimated. 


The collection is unique among those of the great museums in the 
large number of immature stages which it includes; this is a natural 
result of the immense amount of biological work on insects carried 

12573°—21——_25 


374 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


on by the closely related Bureau of Entomology. Material illustrat- 
ing life histories, the interrelations of insect species through parasit- 
ism and otherwise, and other biological phases of insect life is con- 
stantly accumulated by bureau workers; and after having served its 
immediate purpose as a basis for economic bulletins it is deposited 
in*the Museum. Thus there has been accumulated a biological col- 
lection which in parasitic Hymenoptera and Diptera, and probably 
in some other groups, far surpasses that of any other Museum in 
quantity of reared material. 

The fact that all of the Museum staff in the division have been 
more or less occupied with the rearing of insects in the course of 
economic studies has always kept the biological side uppermost in the 
division. 

PERSONNEL. 


(April 1, 1920.) 
Administrative : 
L. O. Howard, honorary curator.’ 
J. M. Aldrich, associate curator. 
William Schaus, honorary assistant curator.® 
Specialists: 
In Coleoptera— 
BE. A. Schwarz, honorary custodian.’ 
H. S. Barber.® 
Adam Boving (larve).? 
F. C. Craighead (larvee).? 
W. S. Fisher.® 
In Lepidoptera— 
H. G. Dyar, honorary custodian.* 
August Busck.* 
William Schaus.® 
Carl Heinrich.’ 
In Orthoptera— 
A. N. Caudell, honorary custodian.° 
In Hymenoptera— 
S. A. Rohwer, honorary custodian.’ 
A. B. Gahan.’ 
R. A. Cushman.’ 
William M. Mann.’ 
L. H. Weld.’ 
In Hemiptera— 
BH. H. Gibson, honorary custodian.* 
BH. R. Sasscer, scale insects.’ 
A. G. Baker, plant lice.® 
Harold Morrison, scale insects.* 
In Odonata and other Neuropteroids— 
R. P. Currie, honorary custodian.’ 


2On the Bureau of Hntomology staff. 5 On the Bureau of Plant Industry staff. 
4Voluntary, donating their services. 


DIVISION OF INSECTS—ALDRICH. 875 


In Diptera— 
J. M. Aldrich, custodian. 
Charles T. Greene, honorary assistant custodian.* 
H. G. Dyar, mosquitoes.* 
In Isoptera— 
T. HE. Snyder.* 
In Arachnida— 
H. E. Ewing.’ 
In Myriopoda— 
O. F. Cook, honorary custodian.°® 
In addition to the scientific staff as listed, there are 10 preparators 
and clerical helpers furnished by the Bureau of Entomology and 


two furnished by the Museum. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Since the division, owing to the peculiarity of its organization and 
the nature of its material, is not able to reach the public to any 
great extent with exhibits up to the present, a few pilates have been 
specially prepared from Museum specimens to accompany this 
article. Some of these represent groups of insects from a local 
standpoint with notes on habits; other plates show related insects 
from a distant region or from scattered localities. Species of beau- 
tiful colors or striking form have to some extent been favored in 
making the selections, and it has not been thought inconsistent with 
a popular aim to include many rarities which have never before 
been figured. Acknowledgment is made to the Bureau of Ento- 
mology for the services of Mr. Snodgrass and Miss Carmody. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 
PLATE 1. 


Ground plan of rooms occupied by the Division of Insects, on the third floor 
of the new National Museum. 


PLATE 2, 


One steel cabinet unit, open to show drawers containing the pinned insects. 
Below, one drawer filled with unit trays for small insects; another containing 
large insects not in unit trays. 


PLATE 3. 


Hurycantha horrida Boisd. From New Guinea. Natural size. Belongs to the 
walking-stick family of the order Orthoptera. The specimen is a female, 
and this sex has not heretofore been figured. 


?On the Bureau of Hntomology staff. 5 On the Bureau of Plant Industry staff, 
£Voluntary, donating their services, 


376 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


om & 


& Ol pp Oo tS et 


oP 0 Ne 


PLATE 4. 


Additional orthopterous insects. Natural size. 


. Stilpnochlora couloniana Sauss. A katydid from Florida. 
. Plagiostira albonotata variety brevipes Caud. A katydid with rudimentary 


wings, from Arizona. 


. Eggs of No. 1, attached to a twig. Florida. 
. Archimandrita marmorata Stoll. A cockroach from Nicaragua. 
. Young specimen of No. 4, from Costa Rica. 


Nore.—Nos. 1, 2, and 3 not previously figured. 


PLATE 5, 


Dragonflies (order Odonata). » Natural size. 


. Calopteryx splendens Harris, male, from Spain. 

. Rhinocypha fenestrella Rambur, male, from lower Siam. 

. Libellula cyanea Fabr., female, from Maryland. 

. Agrion dimidiatum variety apicale Burm., male, from Maryland. 

. Argia fumipennis Burm., male, from Florida. 

. Pseudoleon superbus Hagen, female, from Arizona. A Central American 


species ranging northward to our Southwest. 


. Nannothemis bella Uhler, female, from Maryland. 
. Perithemis domitia Drury, female. The specimen is from Maryland, but 


the species oceurs widely in tropical and eastern North America. 


. Celithemis elisa Hagen, female, from Maryland. 


PLATE 6. 
Neuropteroid insects. Natural size. 


Stilbopteryx costalis N. An ant lion from West Africa. 


. Ascalaphus ramburi McLachl., from Japan. 

. Panorpa nuptialis Gerst. A scorpion fly from Texas. 

. Polystoechotes punctatus Fabr., from California. 

. Acanthaclisis americana Drury. An ant lion from Virginia. 


PLATE 7. 


Two-winged flies (order Diptera) of the family Bombyliidae. Members of this 


family are parasitic in the larval stage upon other insects. All natural size. 


1. Exoprosopa pueblensis Jaennicke, from Mississippi; occurs southward to 


feb fad et fd tet 
iP OO ND be 


SOMNAMH wh 


Central America. 
. Exoprosopa capucina Fabricius, from Germany. 
Hyperalonia hela Erich., from Mexico; occurs in Guiana. 
. Exoprosopa limbipennis Macquart, from Canal Zone. 
Bombylius punctatus Fabr., from Dalmatia. 
Bombylius discolor Mikan, from Europe. 
Ezoprosopa dorcadion Osten Sacken, from Utah. 
. Exoprosopa fascipennis Say, from Utah. 
. Hyperalonia gargantua Knab, from Jamaica. Type. 
. Hyperalonia latreillei Macquart, from Guatemala. 
. Hyperalonia cerberus Fabr., from Porto Rico. 
. Spogostylum pluto Wied., from Mount Washington, N. H. 
. Hyperalonia tantalus Fabr., from Java. 
. Anthrax abbreviata Wied., from Paraguay. 


DIVISION OF INSECTS—ALDRICH. 377 
PLATE 8. 


Conspicuous beetles (order Coleoptera) from the vicinity of Washington, D. C. 
Natural size. 


1. Scaphinotus shoemakeri Leng. A bluish-bronzed bettle found rarely in the 
wooded ravines of Rock Creek Park and along the Virginia shore of the 
Potomac above the city; adults are found in September. They feed on 
snails. 

2. Calosoma scrutator Fabr. <A tree-climbing, green “ caterpillar hunter,” often 
abundant in early summer. 

8. Alaus oculatus Linn. The “ eyed elater,” the most conspicuous of our native 
“ snapping beetles,” whose larvae follow and prey upon the young of wood- 
boring beetles. The black spots are, of course, not the eyes, which are 
situated on the head. 

4, Dorcus parallelus Say. One of the less common stag beetles, family 

Luecanidae. 

. Acanthocinus nodosus Fabr. A gray and black “long horn” beetle, whose 
larvae develop under bark of pine, and whose protective coloration makes 
the adult almost invisible when resting in the crevices of pine bark. 

6. Osmoderma scabra Beauv. A scarabaeid breeding abundantly in the decayed 
eontents of hollows in the trunks of living deciduous trees. Sometimes 
called ‘ Russia-leather beetle,” because of the similariy of its strong but 
not unpleasant odor. 

7. Merinus laevis Oliv. A dull black beetle breeding in rotten logs; the larva 
resembles a wireworm. 

8. Lucanus elaphus Fabr. A stag beetle, very rare in the vicinity, but more 
abundant in the Middle States. The females have small jaws. 

9. Lucanus dama Thunb. The common stag beetle. The female also has small 
jaws. The larvae are “ white grubs,” and live under old hardwood logs 
or stumps. ; 

10. Passalus cornutus Fabr. The “ Betsy bug.” Occurs commonly in galleries 
in the soft outer wood of decaying deciduous logs, and is unique among 
beetles in that the pair of adults are supposed to attend and care for their 
young. Both adults and young are able to squeak. 

11. Pinotus carolinus Linn. The largest native “tumble bug.” It flies about at 
night and is often attracted to lamplight. 


1 


PLATE 9. 
Beetles (order Coleoptera) photographed by H. S. Barber. 


1,1la, 1b. Paratyndaris chamaeleonis Skinner, from Brownsville, Texas. En- 
larged nearly six diameters. Adults occurred on the shrub Condalia obo- 
vata. 

2. Lycostomus lateralis Melsh. Male, from Paradise Key, Florida. Enlarged 
nearly six diameters. 

3, 8a. Cossonus hubbardi Schwarz. Type. Tucson, Arizona; the larve live in 
dead giant cactus. Enlarged nearly six diameters. 

4, 4a. Chionanthobius schwarz Pierce. Potomac River above Washington, 
District of Columbia (the type locality) ; breeds in fruit of fringe tree, 
Chionanthus virginica. Enlarged about eight diameters. 


8378 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


PLATE 10. 


Huropean pine sawfly, Diprion simile Hartig. Order Hymenoptera. Upper, 
female; lower, male. Connecticut. This insect has been introduced into 
New England in recent years. From drawings by Miss Mary Carmody. 
Greatly enlarged. 


Puate 11. . 


Hymenoptera of various families. Drawn by Miss Mary Carmody. All greatly 
enlarged. 


1. Helcostizidea xanthognatha Rohwer, a parasite of wood-boring beetles. 
Montana. 

2. Lagarotis diprioni Rohwer, a parasite of sawfly larve. Found in Virginia 
and Ohio. 

3. Huura macgillivrayt Rohwer, a gall-making sawfly. Colorado. 

4. Dibrachys nigrocyaneus Norton, a parasite of sawfly cocoons. Widely dis- 
tributed in the United States. 

5. Spathius simillimus Ashmead, a parasite of wood-boring beetle larve. Found 
in West Virginia and New York. 

6. Allodorus tomoxiae Rohwer, a parasite of wood-boring beetle larvee. Virginia. 


PLATE 12. 


Moths (order Lepidoptera) from tropical America, of the family Cossids. The 
larve are all borers in wood. None of the moths on this plate have been 
figured before, and the specimens photographed are nearly all types of new 
species. All natural size. 


. Givira gabriel Dyar, Type. From Mexico. 

. Givira tigrata Schaus. Type. Costa Rica. 

Givira sandelphon Dyar. Type. Mexico. 

. Hypopta polybia Schaus.. Guatemala. 

. Lentagena tristavi Schaus. Type. Costa Rica. 

. Givira nudaria Schaus. Type. Venezuela. 

. Prionoxzystus duplex Schaus. Type. French Guiana. 
. Hemipecten gaudeator Schaus. Type. Costa Rica. 
. Cossus infantilis Schaus. Type. Costa Rica. 

. Costria corita Schaus. Type. Colombia. 

. Hemipecten cossuloides Schaus. British Guiana. 

. Hemipecten maruga Schaus. Dutch Guiana. 

. Psychogena miranda Schaus. Type. Costa Rica. 
. Hemipecten alfarae Schaus. Guatemala. 

. Toronia adolescens Dyar. Type. Panama. 

. Lentagena plagiata Schaus. Costa Rica. 


PSU eS es 
AKkWNHESOMNAHAMUR WDE 


= 
for) 


PLATE 13. 
Miscellaneous insects, painted by R. E. Snodgrass. All natural size. 


1. Paraphyes lactus Fabr.. Panama. A “true” bug (order Hemiptera), allied 


to the squash bug. . 
2. Male dragon fly (order Odonata) from New Guinea. In the female of this 
species the hind wings are of the same color as the front ones. 


DIVISION OF INSECTS—-ALDRICH. 379 


3. Pepsis completa Smith. Paraguay. A digger wasp (order Hymenoptera). 

4. Heliastus benjamini Caudell. Type. Arizona. A grasshopper (order 
Orthoptera). 

5. Paniophthalmus vitiatus Wied. French Guiana. A tropical two-winged fly 
(order Diptera). 

6. Micadina phiucianoides Rehn. Type. Japan. A walking stick (order 
Orthoptera). 

. Caupolicana fulvicollis Spin. Chile. A solitary bee (order Hymenoptera). 

8. Margasus afzeli Stal. Gaboon. Africa. A predaceous bug (order Hemip- 
tera). 


~] 


PLATE 14. 


American tropical moths (order Lepidoptera). Natural size. Painted from 
nature by R. HE. Snodgrass. None of these have been illustrated before. 


. Carthara oaracana Schaus. Mexico. 

. Rosema magniplaga Schaus. Type. French Guiana. 
. Cossula coerulescens Schaus. Costa Rica. 

Amaxia carinosa Schaus. Type. Guatemala. 
Cercopimorpha sylva Schaus. Type. Guatemala. 

. Automeris sinaloensis Schaus. Mexico. 

. Claphe palota Schaus. Southeast Brazil. 

. Lysana caudatula Schaus. Guatemala. 


OADAP why Ee 


PLATE 15. 


American tropical moths. Natural size. Painted by R. EH. Snodgrass. Neither 
has been illustrated before. 


Upper figure, Heliconisa arpi Schaus. Type. (H. satanas H. D. Jones.) 
Southeast Brazil. 
Lower figure, Dirphia carminata Schaus. Type. Mexico. 


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PLATE |. 


Aldrich, 


Smithsonian Report, 1919. 


MITES 
348.5SQFT 


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DIVISION OF INSECTS 
US NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


LAOS SEL LIOS G'8LG/ 


| YY FLAONINAL | YYILIOGIdIT 


arg aetna 


LIOS BEL 
VAILIOIIOD 
SO Cima 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 376. 


PLATE 2. 


Aldrich. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 375, 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 3. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE FAGE 375. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 4. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 376, 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 5. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 6. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 376, 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 7. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 376. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 8. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 377. 


PLATE 9. 


Aldrich. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 377. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE IO. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 378. 


PLATE II. 


Aldrich. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 378. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 12. 


FOR EXPLANATION SEE PAGE 378. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE (3. 


"] 
SEE “EXPLANATION OF PLATES.?* 


Les 
i Dat aes 5 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. 


SEE “‘EXPLANATION OF PLATES.” 


PLATE 


/ 
RE Snodgrass 


14. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Aldrich. PLATE 15. 


SEE “EXPLANATION OF PLATES.” 


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ni 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Snodgrass. PLATE I. 


THE FULL-GROWN YOUNG CICADA, THE MATURE PUPA, AS IT EMERGES FROM 
THE GROUND. 


(Twice natural size.) 


SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUST—SNODGRASS. 405 


once commences it proceeds very rapidly through the whole nest, 
showing that the eggs are all at the bursting point when the rupture 
of the first takes place. 

In each lateral compartment of an egg nest the eggs (pl. 4, # 
and #’) stand in two rows with their lower or head ends slanted to- 
ward the door. (It must be remembered that the punctures are made 
on the lower sides of the twigs, so that the eggs are inverted in their 
natural position in the nests.) On hatching, each egg splits vertically 
over the head and abcut one-third of the length along the back, but 
for only a short distance on the ventra! side. As soon as this rupture 
opens the head of the young cicada bulges out, and then, by a bending 
_ of the body back and forth, the creature slowly works its way out of 
the shell, which, when empty, remains behind in its original place. 
The nymphs nearest the door have an easy exit, but those from the 
depths of the cell find themselves still in a confined space between the 
projecting ends of the empty shells ahead of them and the chamber 
wall, a passage almost as narrow as the egg itself, through which the 
plea creatures must squirm to freedom. 

Now, a newly hatched Orthopteron, or a newly hatched or newly 
born aphid, is done up in a tight-fitting garment with neither sleeves 
nor legs, and a young grasshopper hatching under the ground has a 
difficult journey to the surface. But nature has been more con- 
siderate in the case of the young cicada. It, too, comes out of the 
ege clothed in a skin-tight jacket, but this garment is not a mere bag, 
as with the other insects mentioned. Each is provided with special 
pouches for the appendages, or a part of them (fig. 8, 2). The 
incased antennae and the labrum project backward as three small 
points lying against the breast. The front legs are free to the bases 
of the femora, though so tightly held in their narrow sleeves that 
their joints have no independent motion. The middle and hind legs 
are also incased in long, slim sheathes, but they always adhere close 
to the sides of the body. Thus the creature newly hatched much 
resembles a tiny fish provided only with two sets of ventral fins, but 
when it gets into action its motions are comparable with the clumsy 
flopping of a seal stranded on the beach and trying to get back into 
the water (fig. 8, 2). 

The infant cicada knows it is not destined to spend its life in the 
narrow cavern of its birth, or at least it has no desire to do so. 
With its head pointed toward the exit, it begins at once contortion- 
istic bendings of the body, which slowly drive it forward. By 
throwing the head and thorax back the antennal tips and the front 
legs are made to project so that their points may take hold on any 
irregularity in the path. Then a contractile wave running forward 
through the abdomen brings up the rear parts of the body as the 

12573°—21—27 ‘ : 


406 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


2. Newly-hatched nymph 


Shedding 
the embryonic 


7. Free nymph, 


PE. Sno deras¢ 
Wic. 8.—From the egg to the free nymph (greatly enlarged). The egg (1) shows the eye 
of the embryo near the upper end. The newly hatched nymph (2, 3) is enclosed in a 
tightly fitting skin which is shed (4) as soon as the creature emerges from the egg 
chamber. The discarded skin (5) shrivels (6) as the free young cicada or nymph 
(7) runs away. 


SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUST—SNODGRASS. 40% 


front parts are again bent back, and the “flippers” grasp a new 
point of support. As these motions are repeated over and over again, 
the tiny, awkward thing painfully but surely moves forward, per- 
haps helped in its progress by the inclined tips of the flexible egg- 
shells pressing against it, on the same principle that a head of barley 
automatically crawls up the inside of your sleeve. 

Once out of the door no time is lost in discarding the encumbering 
garment, but it is never shed in the nest, under normal conditions. If, 
however, the nest is cut open and the hatching nymph finds itself in 
a free, open space, the embryonic sheath is cast off immediately, often 
the shedding begins while the posterior end of the insect’s body is 
still in the egg and the skin may be left sticking in the open end of the 
shell. Probably where this has been recorded as the normal process 
the observations were made on eggs in opened chambers. If the 
young cicada did not have to gain its liberty through that narrow 
corridor, it might be born in a smooth bag as are its relations, the 
aphids. 

Watching at the door of an undisturbed nest during a hatching day 
we soon see a tiny pointed head come poking out of the narrow hole. 
The threshold is soon crossed, but no more; this traveling in a bag is 
not a pleasure trip. A few contortions are always necessary to rupture 
the skin and sometimes several minutes are consumed in violent twist- 
ings and bendings before it splits. When it does break a vertical rent 
is formed over the top of the head, which latter bulges out till the 
cleft becomes a circle that enlarges as the entire head pushes through, 
followed rapidly by the body (fig. 8, 4). The appendages come out 
of their sheaths like fingers out of a glove, turning the pouches out- 
side in. The antenne are free first, they pop out and hang stifly 
downward. Then the front legs are released and they hang stiff and 
rigid but quivering with a violent trembling. In a second or so this 
has passed, the joints double up and assume the characteristic attitude 
while they violently claw the air. Then the other legs and the abdo- 
men come out and the embryo is a free young cicada (7). All this 
usually happens in less than a minute and the new creature is already 
off without even so much as a backward glance at the clothes it has 
just removed or at the home of its incubation period. Sentiment 
has no place in the insect mind. 

As the nymphs emerge from the nest one after another and shed 
their skins the glistening white membranes accumulate in a loose 
pile before the entrance where they remain till wafted off on the 
breeze. Each discarded sheath has a goblet form (5, 6), the upper 
stiff part remaining open like a bowl, the lower part shrivelling to a 
twisted stalk. The antennal and labral pouches project from the 
skin as distinct appendages but those of the legs are usually inverted 


408 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


during the shedding and disappear from the outside of the slough, 
though the holes where they were pulled in can be found before the 
membrane becomes too dry. 

The nymph usually runs about at first in the groove of the twig 
containing its egg nest and then goes out on the smooth bark. Here 
any current of air is likely to carry it off immediately, but many 
wander about for some time, usually going toward the tips of the 
twigs, some even getting clear out on the leaves. But only a few 
nymphs are ever to be found on twigs where hundreds have recently 
hatched, as shown by the piles of embryonic skins; so it is evident 
that the great majority either fall off or are blown away very shortly 
after emerging. Many undoubtedly fall before the shedding of the 
egg membrance, for the inclosed creature has no possible way of 
holding on and even the free nymph has but feeble clinging powers. 
Those observed on twigs kept indoors often fell helplessly from the 
smooth bark while apparently making real efforts to retain their 
grasp. Their weak claws could get no grip on a hard surface. In- 
stead, then, of deliberately launching themselves into space in re- 
sponse to some mysterious call from below (as usually described) 
the young cicadas simply fall from their birthplace by mere in- 
ability to hold on. But the same end is gained—they reach the 
ground, which is all that matters. Nature is ever careless of the 
means so long as the object is attained. Some acts of unreasoning 
creatures are assured by the giving of an instinct, others are forced 
by taking away the means of acting otherwise. 

The cicada nymphs, like young scales, are at first attracted by the 
light. Those allowed to hatch on a table in a room left the twigs 
and headed straight for the windows 10 feet away. This instinct 
under natural conditions serves to entice them toward the outer 
parts of the tree, where they have the best chance of a clear drop to 
earth; but even so, adverse breezes, irregularity of the trees, under- 
brush and weeds can not but make their downward journey one of 
many a bump and slide from leaf to leaf before the earth receives 
them. 

The creatures are too small to be followed with the eye as they 
drop, and so their actual course and their behavior when the ground 
is reached are not recorded. But several hatched indoors were placed 
on loose earth packed flat in a small dish. These at once proceeded 
to get below the surface.. They did not dig in but simply entered the 
first crevice that they met in running about. If the first happened 
to terminate abruptiy, the nymph came out again and tried another. 
In a few minutes all had found satisfactory retreats and remained 
below. The avidity with which they dived into any opening that pre- 
sented itself indicates that the call to enter the earth is instinctive and 


SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUST 


SNODGRASS. 409 


imperative with them once their feet have touched the ground. 
See, then, how within a few minutes their instincts shift to opposites. 
On hatching, their first effort is to extricate themselves from the nar- 
row confines of the egg nest. It seems unlikely that enough light 
can penetrate the depths of this chamber to guide them to the exit, 
but once out and divested of their encumbering embryonic clothes 
they are irresistably drawn in the direction of the strongest light, 
even though this takes them upward, just the opposite of their des- 
tined course. But when this instinct has served its purpose and has 
taken the creatures to the port of freest passage to the earth, all their 
love of light is lost or swallowed up in the call to reenter some dark 
hole, narrower even than the one so recently left by such physical 
exertion. 

When the young cicadas have entered the earth we practically have 
to say good-by to them till their return. Yet this recurring event is 
ever full of interest to us, for, as much as the cicadas have been 
studied, it seems that there is still plenty to be learned from them 
each time they make their visit to our part of the world. 


Fig, $.—Youns cicada larva, or nymph, ready to enter the ground (greatly magnified). 


Sieviveriy asl saithwod 0% 
dotleniqg ge od tile sjorda 
Shae ae aoe ‘ote feedinanlit 


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satiacts: ‘geamdogndl cite gnitidlehysers coveted 
difsil. regmadid ord: tecrobtonrity ent oniaiie 
abo nieds To ateodyo edt deuje hrmmepa te 
aspera oadeprisy oat oreendeduiontianivanla aden 
HwHhh ara ond ddwodhengGidesatt, 3o dog dit 
sete wedtoat 09 Mae als rm SS 
uh dsimeyd Mats | extort. 
cine RY itera «aca VINA Saat pull ia ke Syapes ae ‘see PE 
yeaa “fivolioaipow ite odd boris sreckanhtaih manned 
2P disveiguedrreldy att te hes urinated Mi) Sane eae 
sod ‘oi ai arsine agi ane ston puraieni aaah, ‘aera ies 


ane “aia ¥ 


ENTOMOLOGY AND THE WAR+ 


By Dr. L. O. Howargp, 
Chief, Bureau of Entomology, U. 8S. Depariment of Agriculture. 


Rather frequently during the past 18 months, meeting friends, 
they have said, by way of casual conversation, “I imagine that the 
war does not affect your work especially.” They did not stop to 
think of the very great importance of insects in the carriage of certain 
diseases, the ease and frequency of such transfer becoming intensi- 
fied wherever great bodies of men are brought together, as in great 
construction projects, and especially in great armies. They did not 
realize, entirely aside from the especial diseases of this character met 
with by the troops in Africa, Mesopotamia, and in the region of 
Salonica, that even upon the western front, in a good temperate 
climate, warfare under trench conditions was rendered much more 
difficult by reason of the prevalence of trench fever which investiga- 
tions during the latter part of the war showed to be carried by the 
body-louse. 

Moreover, with the same lack of thought which leads people to 
ignore the importance of the officers of the Quartermaster’s Depart- 
ment as compared with those of the fighting arms of the service, they 
failed to consider, not only how damage by insects to growing crops 
influences the food supply of armies, but also how greatly grains and 
other foods stored for shipment to the front or on the way to the 
front may be reduced in bulk by the work of the different grain 
weevils and other insects affecting stored foods. In addition, they 
did not think of the damage done by insects to the timber which 
enters into the building of ships, into the manufacture of wings for 
the airplanes, and that which is used for oars, the handles of picks 
and spades, and which even occurs in such wooden structures and 
implements after they have been made—in the implements, not when 
in actual use, but rather in the period of storage and shipping. A 
striking example of this latter damage is seen in the history of the 
Crimean War, when England, after a long period of peace, provided 
the army which she sent to the Crimea with long-stored tools for the 
sappers and miners, and it was found that the handles crumbled 
through the work of Lyctus beetles. 


1 Reprinted by permission from the Scientific Monthly, February, 1919. 
411 


412 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


As a matter of fact, war conditions have intensified the work of 
the entomologists and have enabled them to make the importance 
of their researches felt almost as never before. Long before this 
country entered the war, the warring European nations had met with 
many of these problems in force. We know of the early ravages of 
typhus in the Balkans; we know of the loss through other insect- 
borne diseases in the eastern expeditions; and it is most interesting 
to realize that, although the need for the services of trained entomol- 
ogists with the troops was not realized at first, later every sanitary 
unit in the British Expeditionary Forces carried two entomologists. 
Few people know that as early as 1915 there was a conference of all 
the principal official entomologists of Russia to consider the vital 
question of the loss to stored grains by weevils. Later this same 
matter was taken up by the British Government, and her best eco- 
nomic entomologist was sent out to Australia to endeavor to safe- 
guard Australian wheat accumulating at the seaports for shipment 
to San Francisco, to be milled in this country to replace the milled 
grain which this country had sent to England (this route of ship- 
ment being chosen to avoid the long sea haul from Australia to Eng- 
land with possible added weevil damage during the journey, to say 
nothing of submarine dangers). 

The story of the early efforts of the European governments to 
control the body lice which carry typhus, and, as found out later, 
trench fever, is interesting. Shipley in ition ya ene aie 
papers and a book entitled “'The Minor Horrors of War,” in which 
everything that was known up to that time about lice was sutton 
In France, Houlbert published a pamphlet covering the same ground, 
and the women of France made an enormous rated of camphor 
sachets for the troops to carry next their skin in order to deter lice. In 
Germany, Haase, stationing himself near a camp of Russian prisoners 
where living eyes was, to say the least, abundant, made, with 
that infinite attention to detail characteristic of the Germans, a care- 
ful study of the body louse, and published a sizable book giving the 
results of his investigations. Attention to important details is ad- 
mirable, but when a writer devotes several illustrations and a minute 
description to the method by which a louse, accidentally finding itself 
on its back, resumes its normal position with the back upward, as 
Haase did, the practical reader is inclined to smile. 

Later, however, much practical work was done by all these nations. — 
Delousing stations were established; an admirable investigation of 
all aspects of the subject was carried on by Nuttall at the Quick 
Laboratories in Cambridge, England, and conditions were much im- 
proved before the United States troops began to mass and to be 
shipped across the Atlantic. 


ENTOMOLOGY AND THE WAR—HOWARD. 418 


As will be remembered, one of the earliest matters taken up by 
the Congress of the United States after the declaration of war in 
April, 1917, was the consideration of appropriations for the stimu- 
lation of crop production, and in this consideration, naturally, one of 
the points was the control of the principal insect enemies of staple 
crops. Prior to any congressional action, however, the Bureau of 
Entomology started a country-wide reporting service on the condi- 
tions concerning these principal insect enemies, and engaged in excel- 
lent cooperation, not only all of the State entomologists, the entomolo- 
gists of all of the agricultural experiment stations and the teachers 
of entomology in the colleges, but also the demonstration agents, the 
statistical agents, both State and Federal, the weather observers, 
and the field men of the Forest Service. The idea was to bring about 
as far as possible almost a census of insect damage and prospects, 
so that the earliest possible information should be gained as to any 
alarming increase in numbers of any given pest and that. this infor- 
mation should be received at a common point (Washington) and 
distributed where it should be of the most good, and that it would 
enable repressive measures to be undertaken at the earliest possible 
moment in order to check the threatened loss. All reports received 
in this way were digested and were distributed all through the grow- 
ing seasons of 1917 and 1918 to the official entomolgists of the 
country. 

Soon after this service was instituted the funds for food-crop 
stimulation became available, and trained men were employed for 
demonstration work to act in connection with the extension service 
of the department and of the different State colleges of agriculture. 
These men were assigned to different localities and took care of the 
demonstration work against the principal pests of staple crops all 
over the United States. Some of them were specialists in the in- 
sects which attack truck crops; others in those which damage field 
crops; others in those which affect orchards, and so on. Especial 
attention was given to the control of the grasshoppers which dam- 
age grain and forage crops and to the sweet-potato weevil, an insect 
which bids fair to seriously affect the output of the South of this 
important vegetable. 

Aided, it is true, to a considerable extent by the winter of 1917-18, 
which from its unprecedented cold had a destructive effect upon 
many important insect pests, and to a lesser extent by the char- 
acter of the winter of 1916-17, which also was a hard one for inju- 
rious insects, the economic entomologists, including the demon- 
strators, accomplished much. Owing to peculiar weather condi- 
tions in the early spring of 1917, certain insects not hitherto notably 
conspicuous appeared in great abundance and added new problems 


414 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


to the production of certain crops. A notable example of such 
insects was the potato aphis, a species which previously had done 
almost no damage, but which appeared in countless numbers through- 
out certain of the Middle Western States in the early summer of 
that year. Notable work was done with the destruction of grass- 
hoppers by the poisoned-bait method, and it is safe to say that many 
hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions of dollars, worth 
of food crops were saved in this unusually intensive work. A single 
instance among many may be given in more detail. 

In the State of Kansas the season of 1918 was remarkable for one 
of the worst grasshopper outbreaks that have occurred in that State 
since 1913. The danger of this outbreak was recognized during the 
fall of 1917, and a grasshopper-egg survey was instituted in coopera- 
tion between the State Agricultural College and the Bureau of Ento- 
mology. The results of this survey showed that without doubt a 
great hatching of grasshoppers was imminent, and extensive coopera- 
tive plans were immediately made. Winter meetings were held 
throughout many of the counties in the western one-third of the 
State, and the farmers were organized and plans matured for the 
purpose of purchasing bran in large quantities, and then prompt 
distribution of poison was made as soon as the grasshoppers began 
to hatch. In eight counties of the State 36,000 pounds of white 
arsenic in 366 tons of wheat bran were used in the preparation of 
poison bait, which was distributed in an amount exceeding 900 tons. 
The counties cooperated in most cases financially. As a result of this 
general application of the bait, it appears that some 113,000 acres of 
wheat were saved from destruction. Estimating 14 bushels per acre, 
which is considered a full crop in western Kansas, with wheat at 
$2 per bushel, this represents a value of approximately $3,000,000 
saved in Kansas. This figure is considered conservative, according 
to the officials of the State Agricultural College. . 

In addition to the control work on grasshoppers affecting wheat 
fields, it is estimated that 25,000 pounds of poison bait was used 
throughout Kansas for the purpose of protecting alfalfa and sugar 
beets, and it is estimated that 100,000 acres of alfalfa in western 
Kansas was saved by this application. With alfalfa selling at $20 
per ton, this represented $2,500,000. 

It should be mentioned incidentally that all this control work bids 
fair to be greatly hampered by the derangement of the insecticide 
situation in this country, due to war activities. Not only was the 
importation of arsenicals stopped, but their production was greatly 
limited by the fact that the smelters, from which arsenical com- 
pounds are gained as by-products, were so rushed in the production 
of urgently needed metal that by-product industries were largely 


ENTOMOLOGY AND THE WAR—HOWARD. 415 


stopped, and by the further fact that more than a third of the actual 
production under these limitations was, toward the end, used by the 
Chemical Warfare Service. Nevertheless, the entomologists and the 
chemists and the insecticide manufacturers held frequent conferences 
as to how best to utilize the reduced quantity of arsenical insecticides 
to insure the protection of crops to the greatest extent possible, and it 
resulted that, although the amount of arsenic available was really 
insufficient to meet normal demands, yet by conservative use end 
better distribution the requirements of the farmers, fruitgrowers, 
gardeners, and others were met. 

There might be mentioned also another side activity entirely due 
to war conditions. The extensive use of castor oil in airplane work 
made it necessary to grow the castor bean plant in great acreage in 
this country, since practically none was to be had elsewhere, the 
large Mexican crop having been bought up and sent to Spain, prob- 
ably to secret German bases. Therefore, under Government con- 
tract, thousands of acres of this crop were planted in Florida and 
elsewhere. Now, although the castor-bean plant had not hitherto 
been known to be subject to serious insect attack, the planting of 
these large areas was immediately followed by the increase of cer- 
tain injurious insects and by serious damage to the growing plants 
by the southern army worm and other species. Entomologists were 
at once called in, and through rapid and able work much of the 
threatened damage was prevented. 

In the meantime the entomologists were able to be of service to 
the country, and especially to the military forces, in other ways. 
The damage to stored grain and to grain in shipment, which has 
been previously referred to, soon came to the front. Enormous quan- 
tities of grain and other materials were accumulated at the port of 
New York for shipment to Europe. The immense warehouses at 
the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn were centers of accumulation of 
such material. The Bureau of Entomology was called upon for 
advice by the War Department, and a laboratory was stationed at 
this terminal, where men experienced in the study of insect pests 
of this character were stationed, where competent inspection was 
made, and where arrangements were made for the proper fumiga- 
tion or other treatment of stored products found to be infested with 
insects. 

In addition to this work at the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn, ex- 
perts on the Pacific coast and in the South were engaged in the 
inspection of many warehouses and mills where food supplies were 
stored, and throughout the entire period large supplies of food that 
were being seriously affected by insects were located. The owners 
of such supplies were advised of the necessity of prompt action in 


416 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


order to avoid further losses and were shown how to prevent losses 
of newly acquired supplies that were free from insects. 

The same sort of work was done in regard to insects affecting 
lumber and stored wooden implements. Early in 1917 a conference 
was held with representatives of the branches of the War and Navy 
Departments, Shipping Board, etc., which were responsible for the 
supplies drawn from the forest resources of the country. The 
object of this conference was to offer the services of the entomolo- 
gists and to explain how they could help, through special investiga- 
tions and advice, toward preventing serious losses of forest resources 
and damage by wood and bark boring beetles. Investigations of 
logging and manufacturing operations in Mississippi to meet the 
demand for ash oars, handles, and other supplies required by the 
war service showed, for example, that one company had lost more 
than 1,000,000 feet of ash logs through failure to provide for prompt 
utilization after the trees were cut, thus preventing the attack of 
the destructive ash-wood borers. Serious losses to seasoned ash and 
other hardwood sap material from “powder post,” it was pointed out, 
could be prevented through the adoption of certain methods of man- 
agement by the manufacturers and shippers with little or no addi- 
tional cost. 

The urgent demand for spruce for the construction of airplanes 
led to an exceptional effort by the Spruce Production Board to 
utilize the great resources represented by the Sitka spruce of the 
Pacific coast. It was soon realized that damage by wood-boring 
insects to the logs was a serious matter and that the advice of the 
expert entcmologist was essential to prevent losses of the best ma- 
terial. 

The problem was investigated by the entomologists, and it was 
found that the prevention of the damage and loss was a matter of 
methods of management in the logging operations and prompt 
utilization during a short period in the year when the insects were 
abundant. 

Early in the war, and especially after the United States issued its 
declaration, the shortage of sugar made necessary an increase in the 
supply of supplemental sweets, and since none of these could be 
increased more economically and more promptly than honey, and 
since none of them have a higher value as food than honey, great 
efforts were made by the bee experts of the Bureau of Entomology 
to increase the honey production of the country. It was known that 
there was nectar available annually to provide for a profitable 
increase of ten or more times the then present honey crop, provided 
beekeepers were instructed in matters like proper wintering and 
disease control. So all apicultural investigational work, except that 


ENTOMOLOGY AND THE WAR—HOWARD. ALT 


on bee diseases, was discontinued and intensive extension work was 
begun. Specialists were sent out, held meetings, addressed more 
than 25,000 beekeepers, visited the apiaries, and gave personal in- 
struction, with the result that the honey crop was greatly increased. 
Our exports of honey to allied countries have increased at least ten 
times over those of any period previous to the war, and in the mean- 
time the domestic consumption of honey has greatly increased. 

Returning once more to the important subject of medical ento- 
mology: During the period of the war the Bureau of Entomology 
maintained a thorough cooperation with the Office of the Sur- 
geon General of the Army in the matter of experimental work on 
insect problems. Under the National Research Council’s committee 
on medicine a sub-committee on medical entomology was established, 
of which the Chief of the Bureau of Entomology was made chair- 
man, and Doctor Riley, of the University of Minnesota, and Doctor 
Brues, of the Bussey Institution of Harvard University, were the 
other members. Important work on the louse question was done by 
Doctors Moore and Hirschfelder, of the University of Minnesota, 
the former an entomologist and the latter a chemist, and by Doctor 
Lamson, of the Connecticut Agricultural College. Under this com- 
mittee an enormous amount of experimental work was done with the 
different health problems in which insects are concerned. 

For example, every suggestion that came to the War Department 
in regard to the control of the body louse was referred to the ento- 
mological committee or to the Bureau of Entomology, and those 
which were promising were experimentally tested, either at Wash- 
ington or at Minneapolis, or for a time at New Orleans, where a 
branch laboratory was instituted. At the request of the Army War 
College and the Medical Department, as well as the Chemical Warfare 
Service, tests were made of a new poisonous gas. This led to exten- 
sive experiments in cooperation with the Chemical Warfare Service 
leading to the possible utilization of the gases used in warfare as 
fumigants for the control of insects and diseases. At the request of 
the Quartermaster’s Corps a complete investigation was made of all 
of the processes of the American process of laundering adopted by 
the Army, and also of the dry-cleaning processes and the hat-repair 
processes. In these investigations the cooperation of the entomolo- 
gists of the Bureau of Entomology with chemists of the Quarter- 
master’s Corps resulted in the perfecting of the laundry processes 
so that it is now possible to guarantee the complete control of vermin 
in the laundry if the laundering is carried out according to the 
methods recommended, which are very slightly different from those 
in common use. It was found that the laundry machinery gave 
ample means for any sterilization of clothing necessary. In the in- 


418 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


vestigations of the dry-cleaning processes it was found that the entire 
process gave complete control of vermin, but that gasoline treatment 
alone was not a perfect control. This discovery led to a long series 
of important studies of the effect of various densities of oils on insect 
eggs. At the request of the Chemical Warfare Service various sub- 
stances and impregnated clothes devised for the protection of sol- 
diers against gas were also tested as to their effects upon vermin. By 
a special request of the electro-therapeutic branch of the Office of the 
Surgeon General of the Army, investigations were made of a high- 
frequency generator as a control means against the body louse, and 
as a result of these investigations suggestion was made as to the pos- 
sible application of high-frequency electric treatment for the control 
of scabies and other skin-infecting parasites. Cooperative investiga- 
tions along this line are about to be taken up. 

Among other problems investigated were the size of the meshes 
in mosquito bar necessary for the protection of cantonment build- 
ings from disease-carrying mosquitoes; reports on the insects likely 
to be found injurious to troops sent to Siberia; investigations of the 
protective qualities against lice of furs dyed in various colors, and 
so on. 

A series of lectures dealing with important sanitary problems from 
the insect side were mimeographed and were sent to persons in the 
Army, Navy, Public Health Service, and in civil life who were 
preparing themselves for or who were actively engaged in sanitary 
entomology. 

Aside from this extensive cooperative research, entomologists were 
actually used in the Army, a number of them being given commis- 
sions while others acted as noncommissioned officers, assisting in the 
camp work on the control of insects that carry disease. The commis- 
sioning of expert entomologists for this kind of work was difficult, 
owing to the organization of the Army, but had the war continued, 
it is safe to say more and more entomologists would have been em- 
ployed in this important work, whether commissioned or not. The 
records made by a number of these men were admirable and met with 
well-merited praise in Army circles. In great concentration camps 
in several instances entomologists were placed in entire charge of 
matters of mosquito and fly control under medical command or 
under sanitary engineers. 

In addition to this cooperation with the Army itself, the Bureau 
of Entomology also cooperated with the Public Health Service, 
which had the extremely important work in charge of the health con- 
trol of areas immediately surrounding the concentration camps, and 
held itself ready to assist in this work whenever called upon. 


ee ee ey ey 


ENTOMOLOGY AND THE WAR—HOWARD. 419 


This statement of the work of the entomologists during the war 
might be extended very considerably. Many additional instances of — 
the value of their labors might be detailed; but perhaps the impres- 
sion which will be left by what has just been said will be quite as 
strong as if more facts were added and more time used. 

Perhaps this is an opportunity, however, to call attention in a strik- 
ing manner to the work which the economic entomologists are doing 
all the time. While all this other intensive work was going on, for 
example, the Federal entomologists were making a great fight in 
Texas by which the pink bollworm has apparently been absolutely 
wiped out in the districts in the United States infested last year and 
at the same time there has developed a system by which damage done 
by the cotton boll weevil can economically be greatly reduced, which 
may be said to be the culmination of the work of many years. 

Incidentally it may be mentioned that the preeminently practical 
men who have, under the State and Federal Governments, been work- 
ing for years in this extremely practical and important field, had 
supposed that the value of their work was generally recognized and 
that they were known to be scientifically trained and competent in- 
vestigators whose advice and help meant everything in the warfare 
against insect life. But they were surprised and chagrined to find 
that even in certain high official circles the old idea of the entomolo- 
gist still held—that he was a man whose life was devoted to the differ- 
entiation of species by the examination of the number of spines on the 


legs and the number of spots on the wings. The economic entomolo- 


gists are thus evidently still unappreciated. Shall they change the 
name of their profession to avoid the survival of the old association 
with trivial things, or shall they work steadily on with the ultimate 
hope of gaining the confidence and respect even of the old-fashioned 
element of the people? 


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TWO TYPES OF SOUTHWESTERN CLIFF HOUSES. 


By J. WALTER KEWKES, 
Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology. 


[With 6 plates. ] 


There are probably few areas in the United States where there is 
a greater contrast in physical features, fauna, and flora than southern 
Arizona and New Mexico on the one hand and the northern regions 
of the same, including contiguous portions of the adjacent States, 
Colorado and Utah, on the other. Each area has characteristic 
geological and biological peculiarities; the rivers partake of the 
same differences. The lower Gila through much of its course 
flows through a great stoneless plain conspicuous by its cacti, its 
spine-bearing trees, mesquites, and palo verde. Its northern tribu- 
taries rise in high mountains in which this desert vegetation gives 
place to characteristic genera where sagebrush, cedars, pines, and 
spruces replace the Mexican chaparral. Both areas show evidence 
of great erosion, forming canyons (pl. 1) with many natural caves 
in their walls. 

The prehistoric human inhabitants of the two areas, as shown by 
the monuments left behind, also show marked peculiarities. Judged 
by his skill as a house builder, man reached a high development in 
both of these areas, but in both the mason’s craft deteriorated and 
the culture of the builders was materially changed or disappeared 
before the advent of the white man. Theoretically there is a relation 
of cause and effect between these differences of environment and cul- 
ture as indicated by architecture, and it is the object of this brief 
article to portray certain peculiarities in the character of cliff houses 
found in these geographical areas. 

So far as we can interpret the history of man in the temperate 
zone, the oldest evidences of his presence occur in caves. Even be- 
fore he built dwellings of stone he utilized caves as the best shelters 
his environment presented for that purpose. In the various steps 
in his advancement since that time he has lived in caverns, either 
natural or artificial, and often the construction of the buildings on 
these sites is noteworthy. What, in fact, would be more natural than 
that man in the early stages of his culture history should seek a cave 
or overhanging rock shelter for the protection of whatever food he 

12573°—21 28 421 


422 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


had accumulated? His intelligence would be less than that of the 
lower animals if he had not. For ages he may have been satisfied with 
the shelter nature thus afforded, but that complacency could not con- 
tinue, for ambition always urged him to improve his condition; 
otherwise there would have been no subsequent civilization. He in- 
vented a better home; he early devised a walled-in structure, at first 
crude, afterwards more elaborate (pl. 2), even beautifying it to 
please his esthetic sense. He constructed buildings in the open, as 
necessity dictated, for caves are localized, and in its migrations the 
human race spread over grassland and plain as well as mountainous 
regions; but it may be said that the history of a savage race where 
caves exist naturally opens with the utilization of these sites by man 
for his comfort and for a place in which to keep his possessions. 
When the American Indian first came into the cave country of our 
Southwest he was, however, no savage; he had long dwelt in houses 
of some kind and had brought with him a gift of his gods, the food 
plant, maize, the cornerstone of his future development. This key to 
his civilization led him to avail himself of caves for his domicile, and 
there is objective material left by him at all stages of his evolution 
from which to trace the progress of the building from simple begin- 
nings to the most elaborate construction to which he attained. 

I have spoken above of maize, the supposed gift of the gods, which 
he brought to the cave country. The foundation of all culture is the 
maintenance of a food supply, and the first steps in the advancement 
of the human race were the discovery of an artificial means for in- 
crease and regulation of that supply. So long as man was dependent 
on the daily results of fishing or hunting he had scanty time to devote 
to advancement, but a domestication of animals or a discovery of food 
plants capable of being cultivated and preserved for future use, when 
necessary, started him upon an upward course to a higher culture. 

The bulky food supply of various products of a vegetable nature 
requires storage after harvesting and the agriculturist is driven to 
seek out places to contain it or to construct bins for that purpose. 
Primitive man in a country where caves exist naturally utilized these 
shelters for that purpose. Here we have one of the most important 
reasons why the agricultural Indians ‘of the mountains originally 
adopted caves for preservation of their food supply. The improve- 
ment of this shelter by the erection of bins naturally followed; con- 
sequently in studying the relations of cliff dwellings to man’s develop- 
ment of our Southwest we should always have clearly in mind the 
storage of corn, which was so important under early conditions and 
the necessity for which survives to the present time. 

The production of the food supply of an agricultural people is 
limited to a part of the year. From harvesting to planting the earth 


Smithsonian Report, 1919—Fewkes. PLATE |. 


Mark Daniels, Photographer. 


CLIFF DWELLINGS, PUEBLO CANYON, SIERRA ANCHA, APACHE TRAIL, ARIZONA. 


"0109 ‘AYVd IWNOILVN 3qYusA VSAINI “SSNOH ASH L AONYdS 


“psoliey opusin ong pus ioAueq Asozin0p Joyqdevisojoy J ‘uBweg “7 “D 


'G ALV1d *seyMej— 6161 JOdeY UBIUOSY}IWS 


CLIFF HOUSES—FEWKES. 433 


yields nothing. Man then consumes an accumulated supply of food. 
Then it was that the cliff-house farmers retired to their caves, in 
which they had stored their corn, seeking whatever comfort was pos- 
sible. Thus the cliff house (pl. 3) became the winter residence of 
the farmer. In the warm summer he could live in primitive brush 
lodges near his farm, but in winter he retired to his winter home in 
the cliffs, where, with abundant food at hand, it was possible for 
him to devote himself to improvements in his arts and the construc- 
tion of better habitations; but above all, feeling the capriciousness of 
nature, upon which his future crops depended, and haunted by a fear 
that the gods would not be propitious in the coming year, he per- 
formed a ceaseless round of ceremonies to appease or control them. 

Various theories have been propounded to explain why extensive 
community houses with elaborate ceremonial rooms were built in 
cliffs. We are told that they were constructed in inaccessible places 
for protection against foes. It has been suggested that cliff houses 
were horticultural outlooks, notwithstanding the most elaborate of 
them look out into deep canyons, devoid of soil and impossible as sites. 
of farms. Cliff houses were primarily winter homes, protected from 
the elements by natural conditions and used primarily as storage 
places for food. Open-air pueblos were later constructed for the same 
purpose, and they also served as habitations during the long winter 
months. 

Buildings in caves with stone walls occur almost everywhere in 
the world where man has advanced to any high degree of develop- 
ment. We find them in countries bordering the Mediterranean, 
dating back to the dawn of history; in Asia and Africa wherever 
geological conditions permit. Nor is the cliff dwelling necessarily 
a habitation which man has outgrown. In France, as shown by Mr. 
Baring Gould, these houses are still inhabited, and many additional 
examples might be’ mentioned from all over the world where men 
still live. All prehistoriv or modern cliff dwellings are not built in 
the same form. They have a common site but greatly different con- 
struction. The cliff dwellings of the Far East are oriental build- 
ings and those of the Dordogne in French caves are typical dwellings. 
American cliff houses are characteristic buildings of American. abo- 
rigines. The dwellings in caves of the United States are practically 
confined to four States—Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Ari- 
zona—but even in this area, while they have the same site and super- 
ficially resemble each other, we find when their structure is studied 
that they differ. Two types may be readily recognized, one found in 
southern Arizona in the upper reaches of the Gila and Salt Rivers 
and their northern tributaries, the Verde and Tonto; the other in 
the northern part of the same State, and on the tributaries of the San 


424 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Juan in Utah and Colorado. The essential difference is the existence, 
in the latter, of a room specialized in form and structure for a distinct 
purpose, of which no homologue appears in the cliff houses of the 
Gila area. The differences that give us two great groups are so funda- 
mental that when we examine the implements and domestic objects 
found in groups characterized in this way we find they also differ. 

There are large cliff dwellings in the mountains of Chihuahua, 
Old Mexico. These resemble in their sites the cliff dwellings of the 
San Juan and those of the Gila, but differ from them in structure. 
They have no signs of circular rooms as the former, and, unlike both, 
have a peculiarly formed granary resembling a large inverted vase. 

The cliff houses reached their highest development, so far as va- 
riety of rooms and excellency of masonry goes, in the Mesa Verde, 
Colorado. These cliff houses (pl. 4) are also distinguished from 
others in the Southwest by the form and character of specialized 
rooms. Here we find the most complicated form of specialized rooms, 

called kivas, with the best masonry and the most elaborate roofs. 
Moreover, a kiva of this form and structure is prehistoric, and practi- 
cally disappeared before the written history of the Indians began. Its 
presence indicates the extent of one type of culture area, its absence 
another, and on the periphery where the two culture types overlap 
both become obscured or degenerated. 

Taking, then, the circular form of the kiva as a characteristic 
feature, we may say that the southwestern cliff house has two forms; 
one with a kiva with a domed roof, the other with a flat roof; one 
constructed of regular horizontal, the other of irregular horizontal 
masonry; both forms were evolved from antecedent houses built of 
mud plastered on earth, or vertical undressed slabs of stone. 

A second great group of cliff houses in the Southwest is that in 
which no circular kiva exists; where, in fact, no kiva of any form 
has yet been detected (pl. 5). As the circular kiva is limited to a 
definite geographic area, so the kivaless cliff houses are likewise 
confined to others. So far as site goes, they are alike, but their 
masonry is poorer and the objects in them are different. All these 
differences point to another kind of cliff dwelling, that of southern 
Arizona and southern New Mexico. 

The deterioration of the circular kiva, or shall we say the arrested 
development of the same, appears in the region north of the Hopi, at 
Marsh Pass, and in the great ruin called “ Kitseel ” in the Navajo Na- 
tional Monument. Here the kiva loses the distinctive character of a 
vaulted roof and other features, still retaining, however, certain 
morphological elements, as the ceremonial floor opening, the venti- 
lator, and the fire screen. It is simpler in form, but it is still a cir- 
cular kiva. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Fewkes. PLATE 3. 


e 


7 


as 


SPRUCE TREE HOUSE, MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, COLO. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Fewkes. PLATE 4. 


CLIFF PALACE, MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK, COLO. 


‘0109 “TIVE AHOVdY ‘VHONY VYYFIS ‘MaaYO NOOO ‘SONITIaMG 44119 


"Gg AlVid : *sayMej—'6l6l ‘Wodey URIUOSY,IWS 


PEATE 6: 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Fewkes. 


CLIFF House, GILA NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZ. 


CLIFF HOUSES—FEWKES. 425 


In a somewhat similar way in the modern circular kivas still used 
by the,Rio Grande Pueblos the roof has not the complicated structure 
of the pure type of the Mesa Verde, but as in those of the Navajo 
Monument we are unable to say whether it has resulted from an 
arrested degenerate development. In the Mesa Verde we find a few 
examples of flat-roofed kivas, but only a sporadic example of the 
vaulted roof or prehistoric form occurs outside the basin of the 
upper San Juan. 

The elaborate construction of the Mesa Verde kiva is thus adopted 
to distinguish one culture area of the Southwest, and wherever we 
find it we may be reasonably sure that the people who made it were 
akin. 

A typical cliff dwelling of the southern type occurs on the upper 
Salt River, a tributary of the Gila, situated not far from Roosevelt 
Dam, and is shown in plate 6. This ruin, sadly in need of excavation 
and repair, is, however, protected by the Government and quite easily 
accessible from the Apache Trail. Although of large size, its ground 
plans show no circular or other room that can be identified as a kiva, 
the structural peculiarity that separates all the cliff dwellings of the 
Mesa Verde in the San Juan Valley from those of the Gila Basin. 

What most strongly strikes the visitor to these southern cliff houses 
is their relation to environment. Not only the geological formation of 
the cave, but also the human habitations are characteristic. All 
rooms have right angles and are somewhat larger than those of the 
Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. The unusually thick layer of adobe 
plastering covering the inside and outside of the rooms is also char- 
acteristic of these ruins. Another good example of the southern type 
of cliff house is Montezuma Castle in the Valley of the Verde, a 
northern tributary of the Gila-Salt. The accompanying photograph 
(pl. 5) shows another example of the southern cliff house found in 
the Sierra Ancha, which belongs to the same type as that (pl. 6) near 
Roosevelt Dam. As examples of aboriginal masonry their walls are 
inferior to those of the Mesa Verde, but the hand of the plasterer has 
so concealed their imperfect masonry that externally they present a 
much better appearance. 

Culturally the inhabitants of the southern type of cliff houses bear 
the same relation to those of great compounds like Casa Grande as 
people of Mesa Verde cliff houses do to those of Far View House, one 
of the pure pueblos in the Mummy Lake group. The great rectangu- 
lar wall that incloses a ruin like Casa Grande is absent in these cliff 
houses for obvious reasons, and the material of which they are made 
is stone instead of earth, but the type of construction is the same. 
Transport the great cliff house near Roosevelt Dam to the stoneless 
plain bordering the Gila River or Tonto Creek and surround it by a 


426 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


rectangular wall and we have the characteristic compound type of 
ruin. r 

Tt is evident that the cave sites of the cliff houses on the Salt River 
and its tributaries are similar to those of the northern tributaries of 
the San Juan, and yet the culture of the cliff dwellers was very differ- 
ent. The inference suggested by the presence of numerous kivas 
characteristic of the latter and their absence in the former is that 
while the inhabitants of a cliff dwelling without kivas may have had 
many complicated rites and certain rooms for that purpose we can 
hardly believe the ceremonies of this people were as elaborate. 

There is no reason to doubt that the cliff houses of the Salt River 
as well as the great compounds of the neighboring valleys were 
prehistoric, or were probably without inhabitants when the early 
Spanish travelers entered the country. As in the Mesa Verde they 
reached a high development, declined, and disappeared, leaving only 
their monuments as evidence of their existence. In southern Arizona 
a people of a somewhat different culture from those of Mesa Verde 
developed an ability to construct large communal buildings, but their 
habitations were made of rude earth or logs like those of the historic 
Pima or Papagos. My conclusion is that the rise, culmination, and 
decline of two different phases of architecture occurred in two regions 
of the Southwest, each developing independently or along its own 
lines of growth. In the course of their history the inhabitants of. 
these two areas increased in number and the horizon of each culture 
area coming in contact overlapped, forming a zone with characters 
of each. Here their descendants survived among the Hopi and Zuni 
up to our own time as a mixed people, still further modified by 
foreign influences retaining certain elements of each area. Survivals 
in the modern pueblos have brought to our time the membra disjecta 
of past phases of culture, and still have a great deal to teach us re- 
garding the past. 


ON THE RACE HISTORY AND FACIAL CHARACTERIS- 
TICS OF THE ABORIGINAL AMERICANS. 


By W. H. Hormes. 


[With 14 plates. ] 
BIRTH OF THE RACH. 


Among the many marvels that modern science has brought to light 
none is more wonderful and none less welcome than that which 
defines the place of man in the scheme of nature—his origin and his 
kinship, physical and intellectual, with the whole vast range of 
living things. It is made clear that the several races of man to-day 
represent the culminating stages of a branching series which con- 
nects back through simpler and still more simple ancestral forms to 
the primary manifestations of life in the remote past. 

As outlined by the researches of the naturalist, the story of the 
becoming of the race is simply told. It is observed that the forms 
taken by the evolving life series were necessarily due largely to the 
environmental conditions under which they developed—that a world 
of waters molded forms fitted to live and move in the water, that a 
world of land developed distinct types accommodated to the condi- 
tions of the land, and that an environment comprising both land 
and water brought into existence types adjusted to both land and 
water. On the land there were further adaptations to special con- 
ditions of the particular environment. The inhabitants of the plains 
differed essentially from the inhabitants of the forests, for while the 
one employed the four members of the body in locomotion, the other 
used the feet to walk and the hands to climb and to do; and here is 
found the point of departure in the shaping up of the special being 
called man. Fitness for higher things was determined by the forest, 
for life among the branches and the vines developed the grasping 
hand, and the hand made man a possibility. The hands alone, how- 
ever, were not responsible for the full result, since had the race con- 
tinued to dwell in the forest man would to-day be merely a simple, 
undeveloped denizen of the woodland. The feet made the conquest 
of the earth possible. It is assumed that by reason of some unde- 
termined contingency, such as great increase in population, the de- 
pletion of the forest food supply, or other gradually developing 

427 


498 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


cause, the children of the woodland cradle were compelled to seek 
their fortunes in the open, and the real struggle of existence began, 
the struggle that perfected the man. The grasping hands, freed from 
the forest and free to act independently of locomotion, led to the use - 
of improvised implements in meeting foes, in preparing food, in 
constructing defenses and shelters, and finally to the shaping of 
tools, the initial step in the evolution of art, while the feet enabled 
their possessor to move with freedom in the pursuit of varied call- 
ings. Thus the hands, with the aid of the feet, directed by the 
rapidly developing brain, conquered the world. 


SPECIALIZATION OF THE RACHS. 


Prolonged study of the available traces of man’s origin and early 
movements as recorded in the book of books—the geologic strata— 
has led to the view that the natal place of the race must be sought 
somewhere in southern Asia or on the great islands of the southern 
seas. As conceived to-day, the outward movements of the human pio- 
neer from the primeval home were at first and for a long time hesitat- 
ing and slow. New conditions had to be met and diversified obstacles 
overcome, the exigencies of existence tending to develop the capaci- 
ties of both brain and hand, and new environments to modify and 
emphasize the physical type of the isolated groups. We may think, for 
example, of certain groups of pioneers as they ventured into the open 
turning their faces to the west, occupying the valleys, skirting the 
shores of the inland seas, and climbing the intervening ranges until, 
in. the fullness of time, the shores of the Atlantic were reached. 
Centers of population would develop at many points, and in western 
Europe traces of occupaticn recently uncovered date back to remote 
periods. From these centers expansion would take place in many direc- 
tions. Not finding a passage to the western world beyond the shores 
of Britain, the populations would from necessity spread to the east, 
where they would encounter other currents spreading to the north 
from the primeval home over the vast expanse of central Asia, these 
latter representing the great Mongol race which to-day comprises, 
with its many blends, the majority of the human kind. Other cur- 
rents from the southern home would pass to the east, occupying the 
shores of the chain of seas bordering the Pacific, peopling the count- 
less islands that dot the waters, reaching in due course the far north- 
east, where further progress would be arrested by the broad expanse 
of open sea now known as Bering Strait. The differentiations of 
types gradually produced by early isolations would, as populations 
increased, be lessened by constant blending along the borders, and 
to-day the process of obliteration of race distinctions is progressing 
in ever-increasing ratio. 


ABORIGINAL AMERICANS—-HOLMES. : 429 


THE AMERICAN RACE. 


In turning our attention to the American race, we study their 
facial characters in search of clues to their origin—their relationship 
with and their derivation from the complex of known peoples of the 
Old World. It is generally conceded that the red race is a new race as 
compared with the great races of the Old World. There have been 
found in America, after prolonged research, no certain traces of occu- 
pation extending back beyond a few thousand years; whereas, in the 
Old World there are abundant traces of human occupation whose age 
must be reckoned not in thousands, but in tens of thousands of years. 
The earliest skeletal remains in the New World are of men represent- 
ing the perfected stage of physical development, the crania corre- 
sponding closely with those of civilized man; whereas, in the Old 
World the earliest finds are of forms hardly differentiated from the 
status of the higher apes. 

It is not assumed that the pioneers of the Old World, who in fol- 
lowing the tendency to wander reached the shores of Bering Sea, 
arrived in large numbers—that there was anything that could be — 
called a migration, but that stragglers from Asiatic centers of popu- 
jation found their way across the intervening waters to the shores 
of America; and the process, continuing from century to century, 
involved not a single people nor a few more or less fully differentiated 
groups, but representatives of many of the brown-skinned peoples 
of the Asiatic shore land and of the islands of the Pacific and 
Indian Oceans. That some such process was involved is assumed 
from the fact that the American race to-day does not, as a whole, 
distinctly duplicate any known type of the Oriental groups, its 
homogenous character being due doubtless to a long period of race 
isolation, the diversified elements thus becoming blended into a new 
and distinctive people. It is probable that this condition was 
brought about or greatly accelerated by the eastern progress of the 
northern Asiatics, who for an indefinite pericd have occupied the 
shores of Bering Strait and Sea, blocking the way to the more 
southern groups. 


FACIAL CHARACTERS AS A KEY TO ORIGIN. 


Although there has been more or less blending of the Eskimo and 
the Indian along the line of contact from Alaska to Greenland, the 
two races in their totality stand well apart. The very pronounced 
gulf between them is well shown by comparison of the typical Indian 
of the northern interior (pl. 1, fig. 1, and pl. 2, fig. 1) with the typical 
Eskimo (pl. 1, fig. 2, and pl. 2, fig. 2), the latter type being character- 
ized by the broad face and tilted eyes of the Mongol. The Indian, 
whose bold features stamp him as one of the ablest of the races, 


430 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


occupies to-day the entire continent from the Eskimo boundary to 
Patagonia. We find no closely allied types in the adjacent Provinces 
of Asia, but there are approximations among the dark-skinned peo- 
ples of southern Asia, and probable kinship is suggested by plate 3, 
figures 1 and 2, the first a typical American Indian of New Mexico 
and the other a native of the island of Formosa. That the latter 
may be thought of as representing one of the groups which gave 
rise to the American race is reasonable, and relationships are further 
suggested by plates 4, 5, and 6. Here on the one hand we have a 
pair of young Apache Indians of Arizona and on the other two 
southern Asiatics, the one from the island of Sumatra and the other 
from the Philippines. That the facial evidence does not point to an 
exclusive island origin is suggested by a comparison of the face of 
the Navajo woman (pl. 7, fig. 1) with that of the Mongolian man 
shown in plate 7, figure 2. It is to be expected that with the incom- 
ing currents of Asiatic peoples there would be a considerable Mongol 
element, and this, though submerged, would tend to reappear. It 
should be noted, however, that Eskimo influence may have, in cases, 
extended as far south as the Navajo country. 

The contrasting facial characters of the American Indian with 
the typical Asiatic Mongol is suggested by plate 8, figures 1 and 2, 
the first an Indian woman of the Great Plains and the second a 
Kalmuck of central Asia; and this contrast is still further empha- 
sized by comparing the bold profile of a Cheyenne Indian (pl. 9, 
fig. 1) with that of a typical Mongolian (pl. 9, fig. 2). 

In South America there appears no definite trace of the Mongol, 
the facial type being characteristically Indian. Plate 10, figure 1, 
and plate 11, figure 1, show typical Indian faces of to-day, and cor- 
responding closely are certain skillfully modeled faces employed in 
embellishing earthen water bottles by the ancient Peruvians (pl. 10, 
fig. 2, and pl. 11, fig. 2). These striking physiognomies differ some- 
what in form and expression from the incisive faces of the northern 
Indians, but show no definite traces of exotic admixture. 


EXCHPTIONAL AMBRICAN TYPHS. 


Notwithstanding the homogeneity in type of the Indian tribes 
from the Eskimo boundary on the north to Patagonia on the south, 
there are in the sculptured and modeled faces of ancient Mexico and 
Central America suggestions of facial conformation so distinctive 
and unusual that they have become the subject of much speculation, 
the problems involved being among the most interesting that have 
arisen regarding the history of man and culture in America. The 
problem to be solved is whether or not these exceptional features 
which appear in Toltec and Maya art are due to the intrusion of 


ABORIGINAL AMERICANS—HOLMES. 431 


Asiatic elements in comparatively recent centuries. The accom- 
panying illustrations will sufficiently present the supposed evidence 
oi foreign intrusion. Plate 1, figure 1, and plate 11, figure 1, illus- 
trate physiognomies of normal Indian type. These are to be com- 
pared with plate 12, figure 1, which reproduces an ancient earthen- 
ware face of a type found in the State of Vera Cruz and believed 
to be of Aztec or Toltec origin. They were probably employed in 
the embellishment of earthen vessels or as architectural details. The 
well-modeled, smiling faces are broad and flat, with weak chins, 
and high cheek bones and distinctly narrow tilted eyes. Still more 
unusual are the faces shown in plate 12, figure 2, and plate 13, figure 
1, sculptured heads of a type quite common as architectural embel- 
lishments in the ancient temples of Guatemala. In general contour 
the face contrasts strongly with that of the average Indian, the 
features lacking all the boldness and virility of the tribes of to-day. 
At the same time there is in the smooth, roundish, placid face, the 
small mouth, and in the tilted eyes a decided suggestion of the 
features of the Orient, and especially of the placid countenance so 
characteristic of sculptured images of Buddha (pl. 18, fig. 2). The 
suggestion of Asiatic influence is strengthened by a study of other 
ancient sculptural and architectural remains found in great plenty 
in Mexico and the Central American States. An example is shown 
in plate 14. 

Numerous authors have found in these and other features of Maya 
sculpture convincing proof of the early introduction of Asiatic influ- 
ence in Mexico and Central America, while other writers, with equal 
confidence, express the view that the features in question are without 
particular significance, being nothing more than normal variants of 
native types. The Maya peoples were exceedingly versatile and in 
their treatment of the human physiognomy were much given to the 
grotesque and humorous. This tendency was emphasized by the prac- 
tice of introducing images of grotesque animistic deities into every 
phase of their sculptural and plastic art. The calm, well-modeled 
Buddhalike faces appear out of keeping with their vigorously mod- 
eled neighbors, and, if not portraits of individuals, they would seem 
at least to represent a well-marked and familiar facial type, whether 
native or otherwise. Mention may be made of other suggestive fea- 
tures of Maya culture which tend to support the theory of foreign 
influence. To one at all conversant with the architecture of the East 
Indies these Central American ruins have a familiar look not readily 
explained save on the theory of relationship in origin. This impres- 
sion is not readily overcome, and it is further observed that the sug- 
gestion does not end with general effects, for the architectural de- 
tails and especially the sculptural embellishments and the manner 


432 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


of their application to the buildings confirm the impression. In the 
pose of figures the parallelism is truly remarkable, and that this 
parallelism could arise in two centers of culture (and two only) 
among totally isolated peoples occupying opposite sides of the globe 
challenges belief. It is further observed that in these ambitious 
structures there are suggestions of underlying crudeness as if the 
ideals of an advanced culture had been abruptly imposed upon the 
crude beginnings of a comparatively primitive people. 

Jt is objected that in Maya art there are found no sculptured ani- 
mal forms absolutely identical with those of the Old World. The 
elephant, for example, so important a sculptural subject in India, 
does not appear in these ruins, although there are snout-like features 
that suggest the trunk. On this point it should be noted that even 
if visits of Buddhistic priests are allowed, full identity in the sculp- 
tured forms of animals could hardly be expected, since the priests, 
devoted to the preaching of their doctrine, would hardly be archi- 
tects, sculptors, or draftsmen, and the concepts introduced by them 
by word of mouth would from necessity be worked out by native 
sculptors, using life forms with which they were familiar or mon- 
sters drawn from their Pantheon of deities. 

With respect to the manner in which elements of Asiatic culture 
could reach middle America in the early Christian centuries—the 
period of Buddhistic propagandism—it may be said that the sea- 
going capacity of the ships of that period was very considerable, and 
it is thus not impossible that by design or by accident Buddhistic 
devotees should have landed on the shores of America. Neither is 
it impossible that these devotees of a creed, determined to carry their 
doctrines to the ends of the earth, should have coasted eastern 
Asia, reaching the continent of North America by way of the Aleu- 
tian Islands. The journey from Alaska to middle America would 
be a long one, but not beyond the range of possible achievement for 
the fanatical devotees of Buddhism. The suggestion that the hypo- 
thetical sunken continent of the Pacifie may have served as a bridge 
is deserving of but slight attention. 

The writer of this sketch of a fascinating subject wishes to say in 
conclusion that he appreciates its shortcomings, for it is intended to 
be suggestive merely rather than final; but he finds gratification in 
the thought engendered by the study that whereas but a few genera- 
tions ago our world outlook was exceedingly limited and our positive 
knowledge but a hint of the whole truth, the time is fast approaching 
as a result of the ever-widening scope of scientific research when we 
shail comprehend at a glance the world and its inhabitants, present 
and past, with the ease with which we now contemplate our local 
environment or with which we view a story thrown upon the screen. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE I. 


I. AN AMERICAN INDIAN MAN. COMPARE WITH 
FIGURE 2. 


2. AN ESKIMO MAN OF ALASKA. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE 2. 


f. AN AMERICAN INDIAN WOMAN. COMPARE WITH. 
FIGURE 2. 


2. AN ESKIMO WOMAN OF ALASKA. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE 3. 


|. AN AMERICAN INDIAN MAN. COMPARE WITH 
FIGURE 2. 


2. A NATIVE OF FORMOSA. 


PLATE 4. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. 


Ze 


YOUNG APACHE INDIANS, FOR COMPARISON WITH NATIVES OF SUMATRA AND THE 


PHILIPPINES, PLATES 5 AND 6. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE 5. 


A NATIVE OF THE PROVINCE OF ISABEL, PHILIP- 
PINE ISLANDS, WHOSE FEATURES SUGGEST THE 
AMERICAN INDIAN TYPE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE 6. 


& 


A NATIVE OF PAGI ISLAND, SUMATRA, STRONGLY 
SUGGESTING THE AMERICAN INDIAN TYPE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE, 7. 


2. AN ASIATIC MONGOL. 


PLATE 8. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. 


COMPARE WITH 


FIGURE 2. 


A CHEYENNE INDIAN WOMAN. 


2. A KALMUCK WOMAN. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE 9. 


|. AN AMERICAN INDIAN PROFILE, FOR Compari- 
SON WITH FIGURE 2. 


2. AN ASIATIC MONGOL PROFILE. 


PLATE 10. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. 


2. A PREHISTORIC PERUVIAN INDIAN, STRONGLY 


|. AN AMERICAN INDIAN OF TO-DAY. 


MODELED IN CLAY. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE II. 


|. A TYPICAL AMERICAN INDIAN, FOR COMPARISON 
WITH FIGURE 2. 


OIG 
7 
EN EL. 


2. A PREHISTORIC PERUVIAN INDIAN, MODELED IN 
CLAY. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. PLATE 12. 


I. A PREHISTORIC AZTEC FACE MODELED IN 
CLAY, FOR COMPARISON WITH TYPICAL IN- 
DIAN FACES. 


2. A SCULPTURED HEAD OF THE ANCIENT MAYA 
INDIANS OF GUATEMALA. 


6 AYNDIA HLIM NOSIYVdNOD 
‘VHGGNg HOS “VIVWALVYNS} “SNVIGN] VAVI\) LNSIONY 
NVIGN| ISVS NV SO 30V4 GSYNLdINIS AHL *S SHL AO ANV4 GadNLdINIS AIGVHYVWAY V *] 


‘€] ALVid "SOWJOH—'6I61 ‘4odey ueluosyyIWS 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Holmes. 


sya en ae 


STUCCO MASTERPIECE, TEMPLE OF THE BEAU RELIEF, 


PALENQUE, YUCATAN. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Montgomery. PLATE |. 


(OMT 


vs HILL, 
HA 


i 


oe 
eon 
= 
= 
= 
<= 
— 
= 
=. 
= 
= 
paced 
cos 


2. AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH, JERUSALEM. FEBRUARY II, 
1920. 29 To 36 INCHES OF SNOW ON THE LEVEL. 


THE OPPORTUNITY FOR AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGICAL 
RESEARCH IN PALESTINE. 


By JAMES A. MONTGOMERY. 
University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Divinity School. 


[ With 3 plates. ] 


One of the most distinguished of American archeologists, Prof. 
James H. Breasted, of the University of Chicago, has spoken of 
“the bridge of ancient civilization” that stretches like a great arc 
of a circle from the lands of Mesopotamia on the east to ancient 
Egypt on the southwest. This great are follows the northerly 
course of the Euphrates Valley and bends around into the country 
we call Syria, which borders on the eastern shores of the Mediter- 
ranean and has the vast deserts of Arabia as its hinterland. At the 
two ends of this great curve lie the lands of the world’s most ancient 
civilizations, Egypt and Babylonia. Archeologists dispute which 
of these is the older, but similarities and identities of culture show 
that there must have been active exchange of ideas and commodities . 
between the two lands from earliest times, and we can confidently 
trace this intercommunication to 3000 B. C. and earlier. If Syria 
does not rank as one of the lands of original civilization, at least it 
was the exchange and meeting ground of the cultures of Babylonia 
and Egypt. 

Also, politically and strategically Syria was always necessary to 
the ambitions of those great Empires. Egypt needed its buffer 
possession in Syria to protect its eagerly preserved isolation beyond 
the Isthmus of Suez. This strategical idea is continued to this day 
in the British claim to the proprietorship of Palestine. And 
from the other end the old Babylonian Empire, and later the 
Assyrian Empire, pushed forth by the logic of geography into the 
upper Euphrates Valley and then into the contiguous lands of 
Syria. In the mountains of Asia Minor on the north lurked fierce 
and barbarous peoples ready to descend on these young lands of 
civilization, and in Arabia roamed the nomads, ever preying on the 
settlements of peaceful life. We must remember that apart from 
the mere military lust of conquest those ancient civilizations insensi- 
bly extended their borders and threw their control over the bor- 
dering lands that were adaptable to civilization for the purpose of 

433 


434 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


protecting that civilization. This is the positive and beneficial 
“argument that is still advanced by nations of higher culture in their 
attempt to control more barbarous areas, and this is an inherent 
trend of civilization that can not be too cavalierly dismissed as sheer 
self-seeking. 

And Syria is a worthy prize of conquest and control. It is 
naturally a very rich land. It does not possess the unbounded agri- 
cultural wealth of Babylonia and Egypt, whose great rivers keep 
moist and fertile their vast plains. Syria is a country of hills and 
valleys, with alternating seasons of rain and drought. Its vegeta- 
tion responds to these meteorological conditions. It was in an- 
tiquity a land of great forests, famous over the world particularly 
for its cedars, which supplied the timber of the palaces and temples 
of Egypt and Babylonia, even as the Bible tells us that Solomon 
brought thence the wood for his palatial buildings. It is a land of 
natural richness, the natural home of the vine, olive, and all kinds 
of fruit, while its soil is especially adapted to the raising of grain. 
Indeed it is the home, or one of the homes, of the parent stock of our 
wheat. The present denuded and miserable aspect of Palestine is 
due to the decay produced by the centuries-long misrule of the Turk. 
In its heyday, under the Roman Empire, Palestine must have resem- 
bled Italy, with its rich and fruitful vegetation. An honest govern- 
ment and a sensible economical direction will again make Syria not 
. only self-supporting but a producer for the world. 

There is one geographical aspect of Palestine which distinguishes 
it from Egypt and Babylonia. This is its great sea front along the 
Mediterranean. Babylonia always has been and always will be 
distinctly Asiatic. Actually to-day the British conquest of that 
land is administered from India. Egypt likewise is African. True, 
it came into the orbit of western civilization, partly through its own 
expansion, partly through conquest by western powers, from Alex- 
ander and on, but its civilization has always remained unique and 
detached from the rest of the world. The delta lands which gave 
the approach to the sea were not developed till a late date, and they 
were always carefully guarded against the incursions of barbarous 
peoples from across the sea. But the front of Syria is exposed to the 
west, and so has always taken its part in the civilization of the Medi- 
terranean world, which is the parent of our western civilization.. 
The early Minoan civilization of the eastern Mediterranean, which 
we now know to be as ancient almost as that of Egypt and Babylonia, 
greatly affected Syria. The Philistines, the doughty enemies of the 
Hebrews about 1000 B. C., were probably forerunners of the Hel-. 
lenic races, and settled as pirates on the coast of Palestine. From 
about the same time is to be reckoned the first great Semitic push 


PALESTINE—-MONTGOMERY. 435 


westward in the trading vessels and stations of the Phoenician 
cities, which established their factories and colonies in a fringe about: 
the great sea, even beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, as far as Britain 
and the west coast of Africa. With the rise of their maritime com- 
merce and dominion the Greeks had these Syrian peoples to contend 
with, and later Rome fought a battle to the death with Carthage, 
the greatest of the Phoenician colonies. It must not be forgotten 
that Syria remained part of the western empire of Rome until the 
rise of Islam in the seventh century. And subsequently this con- 
trol was renewed for two centuries in the Crusades, when Syria 
came again under western and Christian control and was divided 
into a number of Frankish kingdoms, patterned after the feudal 
administration of Europe. Although Islam regained its own again, 
nevertheless the presence of a large Christian population in Syria— 
six-sevenths of the people of Lebanon are Christians—has always 
kept the ties close knit with Europe, and the present French claims 
to the possession of central Syria are based on these ancient rela- 
tions going back to the Crusades and the memories of the Roman 
Empire. 

Syria, accordingly, has always been in close touch with the western 
world, far more, for instance, than Asia Minor, which projects 
farther into the European sphere. We Americans, with our idea that 
“Westward the course of empire takes its way,” hardly realize 
the ancient bonds uniting the whole Mediterranean world, the west- 
bound Asiatic forces propelled from the Syrian coast and the east- 
bound forces of Europe claiming at least the western fringe of Asia 
as their own. But there is the further element of relationship which 
binds that Syrian land with the west. It is based on something 
stronger and deeper than commerce and politics and the lust of con- 
quest. It is a sentiment, yet the most vital of human sentiments, 
namely, religion. Syria, or more exactly its southern section Pales- 
tine, is the home of the Bible and the Bible religions. The religion 
of Europe and America is Christian, and their lands trace their 
spiritual lineage back to Palestine. And likewise the religion of the 
Jews, that small but potential people, which has nested, despite 
vicissitudes of time and persecution, in the midst of Christendom, 
looks back with still older bonds to the same land, and with senti- 
ments of race and affection that exceed those of the Christian. For 
the whole of the western world the little land of Palestine must share 
in the interest which the intelligent mind has for Greece and Rome, 
for from these three centers sprang the roots of our modern 
civilization. 

The Bible is the book of that land. Its pages have been open to 
us for 2,000 years. It has been read and studied and interpreted to 


436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


exhaustion, one might think, and yet it ever remains a fresh spring 
of knowledge and inspiration. This book will ever remain our chief 
source of information on Palestine’s contribution to the spiritual — 
good of the world. But the modern mind is no longer satisfied with 
merely the literature of a past age or civilization. It desires the 
ocular evidences of that past; it wishes to know how the people lived, 
what was their economy, their commerce, their architecture, their 
sanctuaries, their politics. We understand much when we read, we 
understand more when we see. Even in the case of a spiritual prod- 
uct like the Bible, which was not dependent upon and related to a 
mighty civilization, as in the case of Greece and Rome, we desire to 
know the material circumstances of that religious life and to learn 
what we may about its origins and conditions. This natural trend of 
the human mind, which is as old as Herodotus, has developed and 
made a science of the quest of archeology. 

To-day the classical student does not feel he is equipped for his 
work unless he has visited the lands of Greece and Rome and spent a 
year or more visiting their remains and studying in their very atmos- 
phere among the memorials of the mighty past. He will push his 
researches into the outlying lands of the classical world, into Asia 
Minor and Africa or northern Europe. And equally so for the 
civilizations of India and China, the student explores those lands for 
the vestiges of early times. In America has sprung up a native arch- 
eology in the exploration of the remains of the ancient civilizations 
of the continent, of the Mayas, Aztecs, Incas, and the cliff dwellers 
of our Southwest—the more fascinating research, for these peoples 
have left no written records, or at least none decipherable. In all 
these fields we have the lure of the history of man, of the quest cf our 
beginnings as humanity. But of particular, almost practical, impor- 
tance must be the archeological study of the ancient civilizations 
which have directly affected and molded our own, those which he at 
the basis of our modern civilization. 

In the case of the archeological investigation of Syria and Palestine 
there are fascinating problems before us. We may discover written 
documents coeval with the originals of our Bible books. These would 
throw immense light upon the many disputed critical questions as to 
the age and authenticity of those writings. If actual books of parch- 
ment or paper are not found, we may reasonably expect the discovery 
of stone and clay inscriptions, which would illuminate by written 
reference the history contained in the Bible. Such inscriptions al- 
ways add to our knowledge of the Bible, sometimes indirectly, some- 
times by direct reference to the characters and events of the Bible 
history. In any case they give us palpable evidence of the pulsating 
life of that ancient time, help us to realize the details of the sphere 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Montgomery. PLATE 2. 


|. LOT OWNED BY THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH, JERUSALEM. 
MOUNT ScoPus IN THE BACKGROUND. 


2. ONE OF THE ALTARS, OF MOLOCH IN THE VALLEY OF HINNOM. 


PALESTINE—-MONTGOMERY. | 437 


of life in which that ancient people moved. ‘The solid remains ‘of 
architecture are to be laid bare. These will teach us the engineering 
and artistic abilities of the people, which we could not realize from 
written books. What appears to be a more minute line of investiga- 
tion lies in the crumbled remains of domestic economy, the fragments 
of pottery and utensils; and yet these potsherds have revealed more 
to us than almost any other source. From the broken bits we can 
build up a picture of the whole object, we can learn how far advanced 
the people were in material ingenuity and artistic achievement. Also 
these slight objects enable us to trace the relations of civilization and 
to date the epochs of the strata according to the known chronologies of 
the better known histories of other lands. Much of such work is 
minutely scientific and painstaking and can not well be followed by 
the lay mind, but it is withal of indispensable value. 

Then there are the remains of the ancient religious life, which, for 
Palestine, the home of our western religion, are obviously the most 
interesting subject of research: Ancient life was predominantly re- 
ligious; it put forth its most enduring expression in the symbols of 
religion. In.Egypt and Babylonia it is almost exclusively . the 
temples and tombs that have yielded our greatest prizes, for apart 
from some royal palaces those buildings were the most enduringly 
built.. And so everywhere in Palestine, wherever there was a human 
settlement, we find the remains of a sanctuary. These, to be sure, in 
that land were not ponderous temples, but rather very simple open- 
air structures, but as they were built of stone enough remains to pic- 
ture the actual rites that were celebrated in the sanctuary and to make 
our inferences as to the ultimate religious beliefs. Also, as the con- 
cern for the dead was an integral part of the religion, the rock-hewn 
tombs and burial shafts are a prime source of knowledge for the 
archeologist, and in some cases, as with the magnificent. so-called 
sarcophagus of Alexander, found at Sidon, they yield us remarkable 
finds in the way of art. In general, they throw light upon that most 
delicate form of human faith, the beliefs concerning the dead. 

Peculiarly in Palestine the archeological remains are of value not 
so much in typifying the religion of the land which we associate 
with the Bible as in illustrating the environment out of which that. 
religion grew and which was its foil and antagonist.. The spiritual 
thought of the prophets and the psalmists, of Jesus Christ and His 
Apostles, never found, perhaps could not find, an expression in solid 
creations. In any case the Hebrews were not an architectural or 
artistic people and, created no art of their own. | Also the first. Chris- 
tian age built and left no memorials in stone, although for the later 
Christian history, from Constantine on, Syria is a land rich in, me- 
morials of the earliest Christian architecture, vying in this respect 

12573 °—21——_29 


438 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


with Rome and other Christian centers. But the land of the Old 
Testament and the New Testament left no contemporaneous symbols 
of its faith in architectural symbols which would stand for that faith 
as does Gothic art for medieval Europe. Rather, the remains in 
Palestine represent the primitive religion which the prophets fought, 
and for the New Testament we have the splendid temples of the 
Graeco-Roman religion, such as those at Baalbec and Palmyra, which 
reveal the actual conditions of the pagan world in which Christianity 
was born. But only the more keenly does archeology enable us to 
realize the triumphs which the religion of the Bible achieved in over- 
coming its pagan and often debased environment. The religion of 
the Old Testament and then that of the New won out in conflict with 
the mighty civilizations which constituted their environment and 
whose massive ruins remain as types and proofs of their greatness. 

But apart from these various phases of archeological interest, the 
pursuit of archeology in Syria, as in any other ancient land, is chiefly 
of value for the world at large in enabling us to picture those ancient 
times. Because we think of the Bible as the Word of God we easily 
detach it from its original location in the world, and as a result we 
make it too unworldly. Even Palestine becomes for the believer a 
land that is not on this world’s map, quite as unreal and mysterious 
as were Atlantis and Cathay, those lands of fable, to our forefathers. 
Archeology brings the home of the Bible nearer to us, makes it real 
and understandable, and so becomes an interpreter of the Bible. Just 
as archeology has been to us the greatest stimulus in the interpreta- 
tion of Greek and Roman literature, so the same study should be of 
equal value for the home of the Bible. 

Palestinian archeology has by no means been ignored; a great deal 
has already been accomplished in exploration and excavation. Bué it 
can not be said that Palestine has claimed anything like the atten- 
tion paid to Babylonia and Egypt. America itself has contributed 
most important results in developing the archeology of those lands. 
But although their primary interest was largely due to the fact that 
they belonged to the biblical world, that Abraham came from the 
one and Moses from the other, the interest in Palestine as a land of 
research has never received its due. 

America took the lead in Palestinian enterprise in Edward Rob- 
inson, of Union Seminary, New York City, who, in his two visits to 
Palestine in 1838 and 1852, is acknowledged to have established bibli- 
cal geography on a scientific basis. Since then the countries of Eu- 
rope have taken the lead. England has led, in the establishment of 
its Palestine Exploration Fund, the first society of the kind, in the 
mapping out of the country, and in pursuing the most complete and 
most numerous excavations. The Germans have been next in their 


PALESTINE—MONTGOMERY. |. 439 


excavations and their innumerable monographs on every learned de- 
tail. The French have contributed very much, especially in the ex- 
plorations of the lands on the fringe of Palestine. The Austrians 
have taken a part. In addition to the work of the British Explora- 
tion Fund the French have a most admirable Bible school at the 
Dominican convent in Jerusalem, and the Evangelical German 
Church has also its excellent school. Each of these institutions pub- 
lishes its journals and researches, while another German society has 
a journal devoted to the Holy Land. Against this record for Europe 
America has not much to show except in the enterprise of individual 
scholars. It gave Robinson to the cause, and one of the most dis- 
tinguished of the excavators for the British is an American, Dr. 
Frederick J. Bliss. The one great excavation work accomplished by 
American enterprise is that done at the ancient site of the ancient 
capital Samaria, undertaken by a Harvard expedition and financed 
by Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, of New York, in 1908-1910. These excava- 
tions have not yet been published, and so the general knowledge of 
the results has not been given to the world. One other very illus- 
trious task has been accomplished by American scholarship, under- 
taken largely by Princeton scholars, the American Expedition to 
Syria in 1899-1900, and the Princeton Archeological Expeditions of 
1904. and following. These explored the ruins in northern Syria and 
in the country east of the Jordan, and have found rich spoil in the 
remains of the Graeco-Roman civilization and of early Christianity. 

As so little persistent and solid interest has been taken by us in 
America in Palestinian archeology, although we are far better ac- 
quainted with what has been done in Egypt and Babylonia, it may 
be well to give a résumé of what has been accomplished in that land. 
In the first place, a great deal has been done and. a great. deal. re- 
mains to be done in the way of surface exploration. Much remains 
on the top of the soil which is worthy of study; and especially in the 
outlying lands to the south and east of Palestine, bordering on. the 
desert, there are innumerable sites which repay the study of. the 
archeologist. Just before the war the Egyptian Exploration Fund 
made scme most valuable researches in the Desert of Sin—that is, 
the land to the south of Judah. These revealed the extent to which 
the Graeco-Roman civilization had pushed itself far out into what 
are naturally desert lands. And the land to the east of the Jordan 
is full of ancient sites once important, even great cities, the centers 
of the trade routes which struck across the desert into Syria. The 
famous city of Palmyra, in the desert east of the center of Syria, is 
typical of this civilization; but there are many other cities, like 


1A very useful review of archeological results in Palestine is to be found in G, A, 
Barton’s Archaeology and the Bible (Philadelphia), pt. 1. 


440 ANNUAL REPORT! SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Bostra and Jerash, across the Jordan, which tell the same story. 
And these lands have yielded a great wealth of inscriptions, Greek 
and Latin, and also Semitic, Nabataean, Palmyrene, and early Arabic. 

In the line of actual excavation a goodly number of sites has al- 
ready been broached in Palestine itself. The most extensive of these 
excavations is that of the British at Gezer, an ancient site on the 
border between Judah and Philistia. In the same region Lachish has 
been partly excavated, and some work done at such points as the bib- 
lical Gath and Beth-Shemesh. The very ancient city of Jericho has 
been in large part excavated by a German expedition. In the north, 
on the border of the Plain of Jezreel, or Esdraelon, the Austrians 
and Germans have accomplished good results at the biblical Megiddo 
and Taanach. The Germans were also beginning to excavate the 
ancient Shechem just before the war. The American excavations 
at Samaria have already been named. Thus a good deal has been 
accomplished, but the archeologist can regard these results only as 
first fruits, which stimulate his relish for more. Palestine is covered 
with the mounds of ancient cities, many of them identifiable as im- 
portant in biblical history, which only await the spade to bring in 
a vast enlargement and rectification of biblical and oriental history. 

The present would seem to be particularly the opportunity for 
American interest in biblical and oriental archeology to step in and 
preempt this rich field. Europe appears to be exhausted asa result 
of the Great War, but it is not out of the spirit of taking advantage 
of our neighbors’ plight that we should take up this cause. Rather, 
it is because we should realize that the duty which has been mostly 
shouldered by the Europeans should be accepted by us as our duty. 
For since, in any case, we share in the benefits of the work, we should 
take our part in doing it. 

There is an American institution which is prepared to act in this 
field if properly supported by American enterprise. This is the 
American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. It was estab- 
lished 20 years ago, and has had an honorable and useful history in 
its life so far. It has served primarily as a school for American 
scholars and students, giving them an opportunity for studying Pal- 
estine on the spot and under scientific direction. Each year some 
American scholar has gone out as director, accompanied by a small 
band of younger students, and by their experience and studies they 
have greatly vivified biblical and oriental learning at home. The 
school has not possessed the funds for intensive exploration, still 
less for the very expensive job of excavation, so it has not been able 
to make appeal through any spectacular results. But it is counting, 
especially now, upon a much larger support from America, so that 
it can be the center and exchange for American archeological enter- 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Montgomery. PLATE 3. 


|. COLONNADE AT SEBASTE, THE ANCIENT SAMARIA. 


2. BROKEN TOMB IN THE VALLEY OF HINNOM SOUTH OF JERUSALEM. 


PALESTINE—MONTGOMERY. 441 


prise in Palestine and Syria. From its experience it can promise 
rich results to any patrons of archeological results in that land. 

Immediately after the war the administration of the school took 
steps to open it again. Prof. William H. Worrell, of the Hartford 
Seminary Foundation, was sent out as director last summer. He 
was accompanied by Prof. Albert T. Clay, of Yale University. These 
gentlemen were later joined by Prof. John P. Peters, of the Uni- 
versity of the South, and Dr. William F. Albright, of Johns Hopkins 
University. The unsettled conditions of the country since the war 
have prevented these gentlemen from doing any aggressive work, but 
their observations and studies have been of great use, and it should 
be a satisfaction to all to know that this American school is open and 
in operation. For the year 1920-21 Dr. Albright remains as Director 
and with him are associated the Fellow (Dr. C. C. McCown, of the 
Pacific School of Religion) and other students. | 

The school is now housed in a pleasant rented building just outside 
of the city. It owns its own lot to the north of the city, and on this, 
as soon as the title deeds under the new government can be secured, 
it is planning to build the first unit of its buildings, using the sum of 
$50,000 left by the late Mrs. James B. Nies, of Brooklyn, for this 
purpose. The school is under the patronage of the Archaeological 
Institute of America and the Society of Biblical Literature and 
Exegesis. The former corporation, incorporated under act of Con- 
gress, is the trustee for all its properties. Information concerning 
the school will be gladly given to any inquirers by the chairman of 
the executive committee, Prof. J. A. Montgomery, of the University 
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or Prof. G. A. Barton, of Bryn Mawr 
College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The other members of the Com- 
mittee are President Cyrus Adler, of Dropsie College; Profs. B. W. 
Bacon, Albert T. Clay, and Charles C. Torrey, of Yale University; 
Prof. Morris Jastrow, jr., of the University of Pennsylvania; Dr. 
James B. Nies, of Brooklyn, and Prof. James H. Ropes, of Harvard 
University. 


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THE DIFFERENTIATION OF MANKIND INTO RACIAL 
TYPES. 


By Pror. AgTHuR KeritH, M. D., LL. D., F. R. S. 


For a brief half hour I am to try to engage your attention on a 
matter which has excited the interest of thoughtful minds from 
ancient times—the problem of how mankind has been demarcated 
into types so diverse as the Negro, the Mongol, and the Caucasian or 
European. For many a day the Mosaic explanation—the Tower of 
Babel theory—was regarded as a sufficient solution of this difficult 
problem. In these times most of us have adopted an explanation 
which differs in many respects from that put forward in the Book 
of Genesis; Noah disappears from our theory and is replaced in the 
dim distance of time by a “common ancestral stock.” Our story 
now commences not at the close of an historical flood but at the 
end of a geological epoch so distant from us that we can not compute 
its date with any degree of accuracy. Shem, Ham, and Japheth, 
the reputed ancestors of the three great racial stocks of modern 
times—the white, black, and yellow distinctive types of mankind— 
have also disappeared from our speculations; we no longer look out 
on the world and believe that the patterns which stud the variegated 
carpet of humanity were all woven at the same time; some of the 
patterns, we believe, are of ancient date and have retained many of 
the features which marked the “common ancestral” design; others 
are of more recent date, having the ancient pattern altered in many 
of its details. We have called in, as Darwin has taught us, the whole 
machinery of evolution—struggle for existence, survival of the fittest, 
spontaneous origin of structural variations, the inheritance of such 
variations—as the loom by which nature fashions her biological 
patterns. We have replaced the creative finger by the evolutionary 
machine, but no one is more conscious of the limitations of that 
machine than the student of human races. We are all familiar with 
the features of that racial human type which clusters round the 
heart of Africa; we recognize the Negro at a glance by his black, 
shining, hairless skin, his crisp hair, his flattened nose, his widely 
opened dark eyes, his heavily molded lips, his gleaming teeth and 

1 Opening address by the president of the anthropology section of the British Associa-, 
tion Meeting at Bournemouth. Reprinted by permission from Nature, vol. 104, No. 2611, 


Noy. 138, 1919. 
4438 


444. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


strong jaws. He has a carriage and proportion of body of his own; 
he has his peculiar quality of voice and action of brain. He is, even 
to the unpracticed eye, clearly different from the Mongolian native of 
northeastern Asia ; the skin, the hair, the eyes, the quality of brain and 
voice, the carriage of body and proportion of limb to body serve to 
pick out the Mongol as a sharply differentiated human type. Differ- 
ent from either of these is the native of central Kurope—the Aryan or 
Caucasian type of man; we know him by the paleness of his skin 
and by his facial features—particularly his narrow, prominent nose 
and thin lips. We are so accustomed to the prominence of the Cau- 
casian nose that only a Mongol or Negro can appreciate its singu- 
larity in our Aryanized world. When we ask how these three 
types—the European, Chinaman, and Negro—came by their dis- 
tinctive features, we find that our evolutionary machine is defective ; 
the processes.of natural and of sexual selection will preserve and 
exaggerate traits of body and of mind, but they can not produce 
that complex of features which marks off one racial type from an- 
other. Nature has at her command some secret mechanism by which 
she works out her new patterns in the bodies of man and beast—a 
mechanism of which we were almost ignorant in Darwin’s day, but 
which we are now beginning to perceive and dimly understand. It 
is the bearing of this creative or morphogenetic mechanism on the 
evolution. of the modern races of mankind which I propose to make 
the subject of my address. 

Hid away in various parts of the human frame is a series of more 
or less obscure bodies or glands, five in number, which, in recent 
times, we have come to recognize as parts of the machinery which 
regulate the growth of the body. They form merely a fraction of 
the body—not more than one one-hundred-and-eightieth part of it; 
a man might pack the entire series in his watch pocket. The modern 
medical student is familiar with each one of them—the pituitary 
body, about the size of a ripe cherry, attached to the base of the 
brain and cradled in the floor of the skull; the pineal gland, also 
situated in the brain, and in point of size but little larger than a 
wheat grain; the thyroid in the neck, set astride the windpipe, forms 
a more bulky mass; the two suprarenal bodies situated in the belly, 
capping the kidneys, and the interstitial glands embedded within 
the substance of the testicle and ovary, complete the list. The mod- 
ern physician is also familiar with the fact that the growth of the 
body may be retarded, accelerated, or completely altered if one or 
more of these glands become the seat of injury or of a functional 
disorder. It is 33 years now since first one woman and then another 
came to Dr. Pierre Marie in Paris seeking relief from a persistent 
headache and mentioning incidentally that their faces, bodies, hands, 


RACIAL TYPES—KEITH. 445 


and feet had altered so much in recent years that their best-known 
friends failed to recognize them. That incident marked the com- 
mencement of our knowledge of the pituitary gland as an intrinsic 
part of the machinery which regulates the shaping of our bodies and 
features. Dr. Marie named the condition “ acromegaly.” Since then 
hundreds of men and women showing symptoms similar to those of 
Dr. Marie’s patients have been seen and diagnosed, and in every in- 
stance where the acromegalic changes were typical and marked there 
has been found a definite enlargement or tumor of the pituitary body. 
The practiced eye recognizes the full-blown condition of acromegaly 
at a glance, so characteristic are the features of the sufferers. Nay, 
as we walk along the streets we can note slight degrees of it—de- 
grees which fall far short of the border line of disease; we note that 
it may give characteristic traits to a whole family—a family marked 
by what may be named an acromegalic taint. The pituitary gland 
is also concerned in another disturbance of growth—giantism. In 
every case where a young lad has shot up during his late teens into 
a lanky man of 7 feet or more—has become a giant—it has been 
found that his pituitary gland was the site of a disordered enlarge- 
ment. The pituitary is a part of the mechanism which regulates our 
stature, and stature is a racial characteristic. The giant is usually 
acromegalic as well as tall, but the two conditions need not be com- 
bined; a. young lad may undergo the bodily changes which character- 
ize acromegaly and yet not become abnormally tall, or he may be- 
come—although this is rarely the case—a giant in stature and yet 
may not assume acromegalic features. There is a third condition of 
disordered growth in which the pituitary is concerned—one in which 
the length of the limbs is disproportionately increased—in which the 
sexual system and all the secondary sexual characters of body and 
mind either fail to develop or disappear—where fat tends to be de- 
posited on the body, particularly over the buttocks and thighs— 
where, in brief; a eunuchoid condition of body develops. In all these 
three conditions we seem to be dealing with a disordered and exag- 
gerated action of the pituitary gland; there must be conditions of 
an opposite kind where the functions of the pituitary are disordered 
and reduced. A number of cases of dwarfism have been recorded 
where boys or girls retained their boyhood or girlhood throughout 
life, apparently because their pituitary gland had been invaded and 
partly destroyed by tumors. We shall see that dwarfism may result 
also from a failure of the thyroid gland... On the evidence at our 
disposal, evidence which is being rapidly augmented, we are justified 
in regarding the pituitary gland as one of the principal pinions in 
the machinery which regulates the growth of the human body and 
is directly concerned in determining stature, cast of features, texture 


446 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


of skin, and character of hair—all of them marks of race. When 
we compare the three chief racial types of humanity—the Negro, the 
Mongol, and the Caucasian or Kuropean—we can recognize in the 
last named a greater predominance of the pituitary than in the other 
two. The sharp and pronounced nasalization of the face, the tend- 
ency to strong eyebrow ridges, the prominent chin, the tendency to 
bulk of body and height of stature in the majority of Europeans, 
is best explained, so far as the present state of our knowledge goes, 
in terms of pituitary function. 

There is no question that our interest in the mechanism of growth 
has been quickened in recent years by observations and discoveries 
made by physicians on men and women who suffered from pituitary 
disorders, but that a small part of the body could influence and regu- 
late the growth and characterization of the whole was known in 
ancient times. For many centuries it has been common knowledge 
that the removal of the genital glands alters the external form and 
internal nature of man and beast. The sooner the operation is per- 
formed after birth, the more certain are its effects. Were a natu- 
ralist from a unisexual world to visit this earth of ours it would be 
difficult to convince him that a brother and a sister were of the same 
species, or that the wrinkled, sallow-visaged eunuch with his beard- 
less face, his long, tapering limbs, his hesitating carriage, his carping 
outlook, and corpulent body was brother to the thick-set, robust, 
pugilistic man with the bearded face. The discovery that the testicle 
and ovary contain, scattered throughout their substance, a small 
glandular element which has nothing to do with their main fune- 
tion—the production of genital cells— was made 70 years ago, but 
the evidence which leads us to believe that this scattered element-- 
the interstitial gland—is directly concerned in the mechanism of 
growth is of quite recent date. All those changes which we may ob- 
serve in the girl or boy at puberty—the phase of growth which brings 
into full prominence their raciai characteristics—depend on the .ac- 
tion of the interstitial glands. If they are removed or remain in 
abeyance the maturation of the body is both prolonged and altered. 
In seeking for the mechanism which shapes mankind into races we 
must take the interstitial gland into our reckoning. I am of opinion 
that the sexual differentiation—the robust manifestations of the male 
characters—is more emphatic in the Caucasian than in either the 
Mongol or Negro racial types. -In both Mongol and Negro, in their 
most representative form, we.find a beardless face and almost hairless 
body, and in certain Negro types, especially in Nilotic tribes, with 
their long, storklike legs, we seem to have a manifestation of abey- 
ance in the action of the interstitial glands. . At the close of sexual 
life we often see the features of a woman assume a coarser and more 
masculine appearance. 


Sa 
1 eile PTE ewe 5 5 


RACIAL TYPES—KREITH. 447 


Associated with the interstitial glands, at least in point of develop- 
ment, are the suprarenal bodies or glands. Our knowledge that these 
two comparatively small structures, no larger than the segments into 
which a moderately sized orange can be separated, are connected with 
pigmentation of the skin dates back to 1854, when Dr. Thomas Addi- 
son, a physician to Guy’s Hospital, London, observed that gradual 
destruction of these bodies by disease led to a darkening or pigmenta- 
tion of the patient’s skin, besides giving rise to other more severe 
changes and symptoms. Now, it is 150 years since John Hunter came 
to the conclusion, on the evidence then at his disposal, that the orig- 
inal color of man’s skin was black, and ail the knowledge that we 
have gathered since his time supports the inference he drew. From 
the fact that pigment begins to collect in and thus darken the skin 
when the suprarenal bodies become the seat of a destructive disease 
we infer that they have to do with the clearing away of pigment and 
that we Europeans owe the fairness of our skins to some particular 
virtue resident in the suprarenal bodies. That their function is com- 
plex and multiple the researches of Sir KE. A. Sharpey Schafer, of 
T. R. Elliott, and of W. B. Cannon have made very evident. Fifteen 
years ago Bulloch and Sequeira established the fact that when a 
suprarenal body becomes the site of a peculiar form of malignant 
overgrowth in childhood the body of the boy or girl undergoes cer- 
tain extraordinary growth changes. The sexual organs become 
rapidly mature, and through the framework of: childhood burst all 
the features of sexual maturity—the full chest; muscularity of limbs, 
bass voice, bearded face, and hairy body—a miniature Hercules—a 
miracle of transformation in body and brain. Corresponding changes 
occur in young giris—almost infants in years—with a tendency to 
assume features which characterize the male. Prof. Glynn (Quart. 
Journ. of Med., vol. v, p. 157, 1912) has recently collected the details to 
such cases and systematized cur knowledge of these strange derange- 
ments of growth. There can be no doubt that the suprarenal bodies 
constitute an important part of the mechanism which regulates the de- 
velopment and growth of the human body and helps in determining 
the racial characters of mankind. We know that certain races come 
more quickly to sexual maturity than others and that races vary in 
development: of hair and of pigment, and it is therefore reasonable to 
expect a' satisfactory explanation of these characters when we have 
come by a more complete knowledge of the suprarenal mechanism. 

“During the last few years the totally unexpected discovery has been 
sprung upon us that disease of the minute pineal gland of the brain 
may give rise to a train of symptoms very similar to those which fol- 
low tumor formation of the cortext of the suprarenal bodies. In 
some instances the sudden sexual prematurity which occurs in child- 
hood is apparently the immediate result of a tumorlike affection of 


448 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


the pineal gland. We have hitherto regarded the pineal gland, little 
bigger than a wheat grain and buried deeply in the brain, as a mere 
useless vestige of a median or parietal eye, derived from some distant 
human ancestor in whom that eye was functional, but on the clinical 
and experimental evidence now rapidly accumulating we must assign 
to it a place in the machinery which controls the growth of the body. 

We come now to deal with the thyroid gland, which, from an an- 
thropological point of view, must be regarded as the most important 
of all the organs or glands of internal secretion. Here, too, in con- 
nection with the thyroid gland, which is situated in the front of the 
neck, where it is so apt to become enlarged and prominent in women, 
J must direct attention to a generalization which I slurred over when 
speaking of the pituitary and suprarenal glands. Each of these 
glands throws into the circulating blood two sets of substances—one 
set to act immediately in tuning the parts of the body which are not 
under the influence of the will to the work they have to do when the 
body is at rest and when it is making an effort; another set of sub- 
stances—which Prof. Gley has named morphogenetic—has not an 
immediate but a remote effect; they regulate the development and 
coordinate the growth of the various parts of the body. Now, so 
far as the immediate function of the thyroid is concerned, our pres- 
ent knowledge points to the gland as the manufactory of a substance 
which, when circulating in the body, regulates the rate of combustion 
of the tissues; when we make a muscular effort, or when our bodies 
are exposed to cold, or when we become the subjects of infection, the 
thyroid is called upon to assist in mobilizing all available tissue fuel. 
If we consider only its immediate function it is clear that the thyroid 
is connected with the selection and survival of human races. When, 
however, we consider its remote or morphogenetic effects on growth, 
its importance as a factor in shaping the characteristics of human 
races becomes even more evident. In districts where the thyroid is 
liable to that form of disease Known as goitre it has been known for 
many a year that children who were affected became cretins—dwarf 
idiots with a very characteristic appearance of face and body.? Dis- 
ease of the thyroid stunts and alters the growth of the body so that 
the subjects of this disorder might well be classed as a separate 
species of humanity. If the thyroid becomes diseased and defective 
after growth of the body is completed, then certain changes, first 
observed by Sir William Gull in 1873, are set up and give rise to the 
disordered state of the body known as myxedema. “In this state,” 
says Sir Malcolm Morris (Brit. Med. Journ., i., p. 1038, 1913), “the 
skin is cold, dry, and rough, seldom or never perspires, and may take 
on a yellowish tint; there is a bright red flush in the malar region. 


2The story of the discovery of the action of the thyroid gland is told by Prof. G. M, 
Murray, Brit. Med. Journ., ii., p. 163, 1913. 


RACIAL TYPES—KEITH. 449 


The skin as a whole looks transparent; the hair of the scalp becomes 
scanty; the pubic and axiliary hair, with the eyelashes and eyebrows, 
often falls out; in many cases the teeth are brittle and carious. All 
these appearances disappear under the administration of thyroid 
extract.” We have here conclusive evidence that the thyroid acts 
directly on the skin and hair, just the structures we employ in the 
classification of human races. The influence of the thyroid on the 
development of the other systems of the body, particularly on the 
growth of the skull and skeleton, is equally profound. This is par- 
ticularly the case as regards the base of the skull and the nose. The 
arrest of growth falls mainly on the basal part of the skull, with the 
result that the root of the nose appears to be flattened and drawn 
backwards between the eyes, the upper forehead appears projecting 
or bulging, the face appears flattened, and the bony scaffolding of 
the nose, particularly when compared with the prominence of the 
jaws, is greatly reduced. Now, these facial features which I have 
enumerated give the Mongolian face its characteristic aspect, and, to 
a lesser degree, they are also to be traced in the features of the Negro. 
Indeed, in one aberrant branch of the Negro race—the Bushman of 
South Africa—the thyroid facies is even more emphatically brought 
out than in the most typical Mongol. You will observe that, in my 
opinion, the thyroid—or a reduction or alteration in the activity of 
the thyroid—has been a factor in determining some of the racial 
characteristics of the Mongol and the Negro races. I know of a 
telling piece of evidence which supports this thesis. Some years ago 
there died in the East End of London a Chinese giant—the subject, 
we must suppose, of an excessive action of the pituitary gland—the 
gland which I regard as playing a predominant part in shaping the 
face and bodily form of the European. The skeleton of this giant 
was prepared and placed in the museum of the London Hospital 
Medical College by Col. T. H. Openshaw, and anyone inspecting that 
skeleton can see that, although certain Chinese features are still 
recognizable, the nasal region and the supra-orbital ridges of the face 
have assumed the more prominent European type. 

There are two peculiar and very definite forms of dwarfism with 
which most people are familiar, both of which must be regarded as 
due to a defect in the growth-regulating mechanism of the thyroid. 
Now, one of these forms of dwarfism is known to medical men as 
achondroplasia, because the growth of cartilage is particularly af- 
fected, but in familiar language we may speak of the sufferers from 
this disorder of growth as being of the “bulldog breed” or of the 
“dachshund breed.” In the dachshund the limbs are greatly short- 
ened and gnarled, but the nose or snout suffers no reduction, while 
in the bulldog the nose and nasal part of the face are greatly reduced 
and withdrawn, showing an exaggerated degree of Mongolism. 


450 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


Among achondroplastic human dwarfs both breeds occur, ‘but the 
“bulldog” form is much more common than the “ dachshund” type. 
The shortening of limbs with retraction of the nasal region of the 
face—pug-face, or prosopia, we may call the condition—has a very 
direct interest for anthropologists, seeing that short limbs and a long 
trunk are well recognized racial characteristics of the Mongol. In 
the second kind of dwarfism, which we have reason to regard as due 
to a functional defect of the thyroid, the Mongolian traits are so 
apparent that the sufferers from this disorder are known to medicai 
men as “ Mongolian idiots,” for not only is their growth stunted but 
their brains also act in a peculiar and aberrant manner. Dr. Lang- 
don Down, who gave the subjects of this peculiar disorder the name 
“ Mongolian idiots” 55 years ago, knew nothing of the modern doc- 
trine of internal secretions, but that doctrine has been applied in 
recent years by Dr. F. G. Crookshank (The Universal Medical Ree- 
ord, vol. iti, p. 12, 1918) to explain the features and condition of 
Mongoloid imbecile children. Some years ago (Journ. of Anat. and 
Physiol., 1913) I brought forward evidence to show that we could 
best explain the various forms of anthropoid apes by applying the 
modern doctrine of a growth-controlling glandular mechanism. In 
the gorilla we see the effects of a predominance of the pituitary ele- 
ments; in the orang, of the thyroid. The late Prof. Klaatsch tried 
to account for the superficial resemblances between the Malay and 
the orang by postulating a genetic relationship between them; for a 
similar reason he derived the Negro type from a gorilline ancestry. 
Occasionally we see a man or woman of supposedly pure European 
ancestry displaying definite Mongoloid traits in their features. We 
have been in the habit of accounting for such manifestations by the 
theory, at one time very popular, that a Mongoloid race ‘had at one 
time spread over Europe and that Mongoloid traits were atavistic 
recurrences. An examination of the human remains of ancient 
Europe yields no evidence in support of a Turanian or Mongol inva- 
sion of Europe. 

All these manifestations to which I have been directing your atten- 
tion—the sporadic manifestation of the Mongoloid characters in dis- 
eased children and in healthy adult Europeans, the generic characters 
which separate one kind of ape from another, the bodily and mental 
features which mark the various races of mankind—are best ex- 
plained by the theory I am supporting, namely, that the conforma- 
tion of man and ape and of every vertebrate animal is determined by 
a common growth-controlling mechanism which is resident in a sys- 
tem of small but complex glandular organs. We must now look 
somewhat more closely into the manner in which this growth-regulat- 
ing mechanism actually works. That we can do best by taking a 
glimpse of a research carried out by Bayliss and Starling in the open- 


rap aha en MRE NESS Dey ieee vS ~ 


SS 


‘RACIAL 'TYPES“—KEITH. 451 


ing years of the present century. They were seeking to explain why 
it was that the pancreas poured out its digestive juice as soon as the 
contents of the stomach commenced to pass into the first part of the 
duodenum. It was then known that if acid was applied to the lining 
epithelial membrane of the duodenum the pancreas commenced to 
work; it was known also that the message which set the pancreas into 
operation was not conveyed from the duodenum to the pancreas by 
nerves, for when they were cut the mechanism was still effective. 
Bayliss and Starling solved the puzzle by making an emulsion from 
the acid-soaked lining epithelium of the duodenum and injecting the 
extract of that emulsion into the circulating blood. The result was 
that the pancreas was immediately thrown into activity. The par- 
ticular substance which was thus set circulating in the blood and 
acted on the pancreas, and on the pancreas alone, and thus served as 
a messenger or hormone they named secretin. They not only cleared 
up the mechanism of pancreatic secretion, but at the same time made 
a discovery of much greater importance. They had discovered a 
new method whereby one part of the human body could communi- 
cate with and control another. Up to that time we had been like 
an outlandish visitor to a strange city, who believed that the visible 
telegraph or telephone wires were the only means of communication 
between its inhabitants. We believed that it was only by nerve fibers 
that intercommunication was established in the animal body. Bay- 
liss and Starling showed that there was a postal system. Missives 
posted in the general circulation were duly delivered at their des- 
tinations. The manner in which they reached the right address is 
of particular importance for us; we must suppose that the missive 
or hormone circulating in the blood and the recipient for which they 
are intended have a special attraction or affinity for each other— 
one due to their physical constitution—and hence they, and oniy 
they, come together as the blood circulates round the body. Secre- 
tin is a hormone which effects its errand rapidly and immediately, 
whereas the growth or morphogenetic hormones thrown into the 
circulation by the pituitary, pineal, thyroid, suprarenal, and genital 
glands act. slowly and remotely. But both are alike in this; the 


result depends not only on the nature of the hormone or missive but 


also on the state of the local recipient. The local recipient may be 
specially greedy, as it were, and seize more than a fair share of the 
manna in circulation, or it may have “sticky fingers” and seize what 
is not really intended for local consumption. We can see that local 
growth—the development of a particular trait or feature—is de- 
pendent not only on the hormones supplied to that part but also on 
the condition of the receptive mechanism of the part. Hence we 
can understand a local derangement of growth, an acromegaly or 
giantism confined to a finger or to the eyebrow ridges, to the nose, 


452 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


to one side of the face, and such local manifestations are not un- 
common. It is by a variation in the sensitiveness of the local re- 
cipient that we have an explanation of the endless variety to be found 
in the relative development of racial and individual features. 

Some 10 years after Starling had formulated the theory of hor- 
mones, Prof. W. B. Cannon, of Harvard University, piecing together 
the results of researches by Dr. T. R. Elliott and by himself on the 
action of the suprarenal glands, brought to light a very wonderful 
hormone mechanism—one which helps us in interpreting the action 
of growth-regulating hormones. When we are about to make a 
severe bodily effort it is necessary to flood our muscles with blood, 
so that they may have at their disposal the materials necessary for 
work—oxygen and blood sugar, the fuel of muscular engines. At 
the beginning of a muscular effort the suprarenal glands are set 
going by messages passing to them from the central nervous system; 
they throw a hormone—adrenalin—into the circulating bleod, which 
has a double effect; adrenalin acts on the floodgates of the circula- 
tion so that the major supply of blood passes to the muscles. At the 
same time it so acts on the liver that the blood circulating through 
that great organ becomes laden with blood sugar. We here obtain 
a glimpse of the neat and effective manner in which hormones are 
utilized in the economy of the living body. From that glimpse we 
seem to obtain a clue to that remarkable disorder of growth in the 
human body known as acromegaly. It is a pathological manifesta- 
tion of an adaptational mechanism with which we are all familiar. 
Nothing is better known to us than that our bodies respond to the 
burden they are made to bear. Our muscles increase in size and 
strength the more we use them; increase in the size of our muscles 
would be useless unless our bones also were strengthened to a corre- 
sponding degree. A greater blood supply is required to feed them, 
and hence the power of the heart has to be augmented; more oxygen 
is needed for their consumption and hence the lung capacity has to 
be increased; more fuel is required, hence the whole digestive and 
assimilative systems have to undergo a hypertrophy, including the ap- 
paratus of mastication. Such a power of coordinated response on the 
part of all the organs of the body to meet the needs of athletic train- 
ing presupposes a coordinating mechanism. We have always re- 
garded such a power of response as an inherent property of the living 
body, but, in the light of our growing knowledge, it is clear that we 
are here dealing with an hormonic mechanism, one in which the 
pituitary gland is primarily concerned. When we study the struc- 
tural changes which take place in the first phase of acromegaly (see 
Keith, Lancet, 11, p. 993, 1911; i, p. 305, 1913) we find that not only 
are the bones enlarged and overgrown in a peculiar way, but also 


RACIAL TYPES—KEITH. 453 


the muscles, the heart, the lungs, the organs of digestion, particularly 
the jaws; hence the marked changes in the face for the form of the 
face is determined by the development of the upper and lower jaws. 
The rational interpretation of acromegaly is that it is a pathological 
diorder of the mechanism of adaptational response; in the healthy 
body the pituitary is throwing into the circulation just a sufficiency 
of a growth-regulating substance to sensitize muscles, bones, and other 
structures to give a normal response to the burden thrown on the 
body. But in acromegaly the body is so flooded with this substance 
that its tissues become hypersensitive and respond by overgrowth to 
efforts and movements of the slightest degree. It is not too much to 
expect, when we see how the body and features become transformed 
at the onset of acromegaly, that a fuller knowledge of these growth 
mechanisms will give usa clue to the principles of race differentiation. 

There must be many other mechanisms regulated by hormones with 
which we are as yet totally unacquainted. I will cite only one in- 
stance—that concerned in regulating the temperature of the body. 
We know that the thyroid and also the suprarenal glands are con- 
cerned in this mechanism; they have also to do with the deposition 
and absorption of pigment in the skin, which must be part of the 
heat-regulating mechanism. It is along such a path of inquiry that 
we expect to discover a clue to the question of race color. 

This is not the first occasion on which the doctrine of hormones 
has been applied to biological problems at the British Association. 
In his presidential address to the zoological section, at Sheffield, in 
1910, Prof. G. C. Bourne applied the theory to the problems of evolu- 
tion; its bearing was examined in more detail in an address to the 
same section by Prof. Arthur Dendy during the meeting at Ports- 
mouth in 1911. At the meeting of the association, at Newcastle, in 
1916, Prof. MacBride devoted part of his address to the morpho- 
genetic bearings of hormones. Very soon after Starling formulated 
the hormone theory, Dr. J. T. Cunningham applied it to explain the 
phenomena of heredity (Proc. Zool. Soc., London, p. 484, 1908). 
Nay, rightly conceived, Darwin’s theory of pan-genesis is very much 
of the same character as the modern theory of hormones. 

12573°—21—_30 


abate bul dehy 
ns it i a od 

ae eds 

Aaa ST } 


THE EXPLORATION OF MANCHURIA:t 


By Capt. ARTHUR DE C. SowrrBy, F. R. G. S., F. Z. S. 


[With 4 plates. ] 


Manchuria, perhaps on account of its being the ancestral home 
of the last ruling dynasty of the great Chinese Empire, has long been 
a country of considerable interest to explorers from the west, though, 
owing to peculiar difficulties, not usually presented in the cases 
of other unknown parts of the world, its exploration has not been so 
thorough or so rapid as might have been expected. 

The difficulties which barred alike the scientific and commercial 
explorer, and effectually kept out the greatest pioneer of all, the 
prospector, lay in the fact that the Manchu emperors in their rule 
over China tried to keep closed the doors of this the sacred home 
of their forbears against the inquisitive and grasping Huropeans. 
And, all things considered, and from their own point of view, they 
had considerable reason on their side. 

As regards Manchuria itself, their first experience with the white 
“barbarians” of the west occurred when the Russians in their march 
of conquest gcross Siberia came into contact with the outposts of the 
Manchu Empire on the Amur in the seventeenth century, and at 
once a struggle commenced between the emissaries of the two mighty 
empires for the possession of this valuable stretch of territory, which 
ended in the nineteenth century in the whole of the Amur and Ussuri 
regions coming under the sway of the Tsar of all the Russias. 

Next the Manchu emperors found the white man knocking with 
no uncertain hand at the doors of their domain in the far south, so 
that it is not to be wondered at that they tried to keep Manchuria 
closed to these aliens. Nevertheless, the whites have persisted in their 
purpose, and, after forcing the doors, have during the past century 
succeeded in finding out much about the wonderful country of 
Manchuria. 

Very early in what may be called the modern history of the coun- 
try the great explorer and naturalist, Pallas, reached the Amur 
region. He was followed in turn by Radde and Schrenck, and all 
three have left invaluable records of their discoveries. 

1 Paper read at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, May 26, 1919. Re- 
printed by permission from the Geographical Journal, Vol. LIV, No, 2, August, 1919. 

455 


456 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


In 1886 three noted travelers, James, Younghusband, and Fulford, 
made their historic journey through Shenking (now known as 
Fengtien) and Kirin, to the sacred peak, Lao Pei Shan (Peiktusan), 
of the Chang Pei Shan range, and northward to the Sungari River 
and into Heilungkiang Province. The record of their journey was 
perpetuated by James in his standard work “The Long White 
Mountain.” 

Later still Sir Alexander Hosie made his journeys through the 
country and along the Amur, and he too has ably contributed to our 
knowledge of the country in his book “ Manchuria, Its People, Re- 
sources, and Recent History.” In addition to the records of these 
travelers and explorers there is a considerable amount of literature 
in Russian and Japanese, which, alas, is sealed to most Britishers 
and sadly curtails our general knowledge of the country. It is to be 
hoped that these records of good work done will some day appear in 
the English language, for it is hardly likely that either Russian or 
Japanese will ever become part of the curricula of our British schools 
and colleges. 

While travelers and men of science have thus been busy, the 
representatives of the commercial world have not been idle, for the 
barriers set up have been broken down and trade relations established 
so that the southern and western parts of the country have become 
fairly well known to the outside world. 

In the last few years, with increased facilities for travel, and with 
the passing of the old suspicions against outsiders, scientific men as 
well as traders and missionaries have penetrated the tountry to a 
considerably greater extent than was formerly possible. Even so, 
there still remain large tracts of unexplored country, while there is 
still much to be learned regarding its topography, fauna, flora, 
geology and mineral and economic resources; and it is with my own 
small share in the work of exploring these last stretches of unknown 
territory that I propose to deal to-night. 

In preparing this paper it has been difficult to determine just 
what line to take; for, though in the course of the past 12 years I 
have done a certain amount of geographical exploration, notably in 
Shansi, Shensi, North Chihli, and Inner Mongolia, as a naturalist I 
have been concerned primarily with the fauna and to a lesser extent 
the flora and geology rather than with the geography of these 
districts. 

Nevertheless, it is not easy for even the most casual traveler to pass 
through a country without gleaning some idea of its geography, 
topography, people, and products, and, as I hope I may claim to be 
something more than a casual traveler, I feel that, as one of the 
most recent scientific travelers in Manchuria, there may be some- 


* 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Sowerby. PLATE |. 


: 


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MANCHURIA—SOWERBY. _ 457 


thing of interest regarding that country for me to lay before the 
members of this distinguished society. 

As a field naturalist I have been working under the auspices of the 
United States National Museum, a Government establishment under 
the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. It has been my good 
fortune to make several excursions from my headquarters in Tientsin 
into Manchuria, a land of mighty rivers and great primeval forests, of 
voleanic hills and mountains and wide alluvial plains. 

My first visit was made in the spring and early summer of 1913, 
when I entered Kirin Province, via Kaiyiian on the Moukden-Harbin 
Railway line, and, after a period spent in the forest to the southeast 
of Chaoyangchen, took boat and explored certain parts of the upper 
Sungari River and its tributaries, finally reaching the town of Kirin, 
or Chuanchang, and thence by river steamer and railway arriving 
back in Tientsin in August. 

In the spring of the following year I made a journey by boat up 
the lower portion of the Yalu River and its tributary, the Hunkiang, 
taking the opportunity to visit Port Arthur and Dalny en route. 

The following autumn and early winter were spent in the forested 
regions in northern Kirin Province, between Harbin and Ninguta. 

In the summer of 1915 I traveled with a friend to Harbin, and 
thence down the Sungari River as far as its junction with the Amur. 
It was found impossible, however, to continue in this direction, owing 
to the suspicion and inimicability of the Russian authorities, so we 
turned back and spent the autumn once more in the forests of north- 
ern Kirin. 

Had I been on a purely geographical quest my wanderings would 
undoubtedly have been of a far wider scope, but it will be readily 
understood that the search for small mammals, birds, reptiles, and 
even larger quarry, depends for its success rather upon getting to 
know one more or less limited area well than in making lengthy and 
rapid traverses of wide stretches of country. The several excursions 
just mentioned were undertaken with a view to tapping typical areas 
in Manchuria, and certainly the results they yielded were highly sat- 
isfactory, though it must be stated at once that little in the way of 
absolutely new species was discovered. 

Before going into details of my own travels, it might be as well to 
take a rapid survey of the geography, configuration, communica- 
tions, and resources of Manchuria as they exist to-day, for since 
James and his party and Hosie made their extended journeys in that 
country considerable changes have taken place. The settling up of 
the wilderness by Chinese has continued on an ever-increasing scale; 
railways, undreamed of then, have come into existence; the great 
rivers of the north have been supplied with steamboat services; and 


458 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


vast areas of forest have been transformed into smiling farm lands. 
The few aborigines have become further reduced, while foreign in- 
fluence—Russian, Japanese, and Chinese—has greatly increased. 

The three Provinces of Manchuria—Fengtien, Kirin, and Heilung- 
kiang—occupy a broad horseshoe-shaped belt of country, of which 
the outer (eastern) edge is bounded by four great rivers, the Yalu 
and Tumen, on the south, forming the boundary between Fengtien 
and Kirin and Korea; the Ussuri, on the east, dividing Kirin from 
the east Siberian Province of Primorskaya; and the Amur, or Heilung- 
kiang, on the north, separating Heilungkiang Province from the 
Amur Province, or Amurland. Formerly, during the Ch’ing dynasty 
and right into the nineteenth century, both Amurland and Primor- 
skaya belonged to Manchuria, and to this day the aborigines of these 
great stretches of country should be considered as Manchurians 
rather than Siberians. 

The western boundaries of Manchuria are less clearly defined, 
though here the Provinces come into contact with eastern Mongolia. 
The more or less arid steppes of which the latter country is fermed 
do not end with the political boundary line, but extend beyond the 
border into the more fertile terrain of Manchuria. Thus portions 
of northern Fengtien, western Kirin, and southwestern Heilung- 
kiang are more typical of Mongolia, and we find the aborigines per- 
taining to the more truly Mongol race, such as the Daurians. 

Of the three Provinces, Fengtien has been longest under cultivation, 
and has figured the most in the history of China, Mongolia, Man- 
churia, and Korea. It consists of rather bare, rocky hills and moun- 
tains in the west and southeast, with a wide flat plain between, which 
runs in a northeast southwest direction, joining up with the east 
Mongolian steppes in the north, and bordering the Liao-tung Gulf 
in the south. Down this plain flows the Liao River, and on it are 
situated many important towns, such as Chinchowfu, Moukden, 
Tiehling, and Kaiyiian. The Peking-Moukden Railway traverses it 
from Shanhaikwan to Moukden. A branch line from Kowpantze 
runs to Yingkow at the mouth of the Liao River. From Moukden 
run three branches of the South Manchuria Railway. One strikes 
southwest and runs as far as Port Arthur and Dalny (Dairen), on 
the Liaotung Peninsula, with a short branch to Yingkow. Another 
running southeast reaches Antung at the mouth of the Yalu River, 
which it crosses by means of a magnificent steel bridge, and is con- 
tinued in Korea as the Chosen Railway. A third, which is really a 
continuation of the first, runs north to Changchun, where it makes 
connection with the Changchun-Kirin Railway, and a branch of the 
Chinese Eastern Railway which runs south from Harbin. The main 
line of the Chinese Eastern Railway runs from Vladivostok to Man- 


MANCHURIA—SOWERBY. 459 


chouli through Ninguta, Harbin and Hailar. The Liao River is not 
navigable except for light-draft native boats, but of this type of 
craft it carries a considerable number. 

Fengtien is given almost entirely to cultivation, maize, wheat, 
sorghum, millet, beans, and, of late years, rice being the main cereals 
grown. A considerable amount of tobacco is grown, while silk is ex- 
tensively cultivated in the hills of the south and southeast, the silk- 


KWANCHENG TS 
Ns chuna =z 


inchangtze © 
bas augers hanchai at 


Scale 1/ 18,000,000 
190: 100 200 ' cu 2 
——— Miles 7 Kilometres 
: Railways aoa 


Fig, 1.—Sketch map of Manchuria, prepared from the Manchuria sheet of the 1/5 M Asia. 


worms being fed on scrub oak specially grown for the purpose. The 
raw silk is extensively exported to Shantung, where it is manufac- 
tured into the famous pongee. All attempts to induce the silk weavers 
of Shantung to settle in Manchuria have failed. 

The Japanese Government has had schemes for inducing her own 
nationals to settle on land along the railway lines controlled by her; 
but this also has proved a failure, probably owing to the inability of 
the Japanese peasants to compete favorably with the local Chinese 
farmers. 


460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


To the east of Fengtien lies the beautiful and fertile Province of 
Kirin, or Chi Lin, meaning “clear forest.” At least a third as large 
again as Fengtien, this Province supports at present a far smaller 
population, though it is being settled up rapidly. 

The great Kirin Forest, which stretches from a little north of the 
Yalu up the middle and west of the Province, in places to the very 
banks of the Sungari River, east of Harbin, and well into the angle 
formed by the junction of the Ussuri with the Amur, has been esti- 
mated as covering an area equal to that of Scotland. The whole of 
the Chang Pei Shan Range is heavily forested, though this area is 
being exploited for its timber by the Japanese on the southern and 
the Chinese on the northern slopes of the range, the former getting 
the timber out by the Yalu, and the latter by the Sungari and its 
tributaries. Farther north in the Province, between Harbin and 
Ninguta, the forest is being tapped by Russian and Chinese com- 
panies, the timber extracted consisting chiefly of pine. It is trans- 
ported from the forest by the Chinese Eastern Railway, and most of 
it goes to Vladivostok, whence in pre-war times it found its way to 
Europe. An enormous quantity of oak, walnut, and maple is also cut 
to supply fuel for the population, the locomotives, and the steamers 
that ply on the Sungari. The forest in the northeast of the Province 
consists mainly of deciduous trees, chiefly oak. 

Besides the Chang Pei Shan Range in the south, the center and 
eastern portions of the Province are occupied by high hills and even 
mountains of plutonic and volcanic origin. 

The Province is drained by the Sungari River, the Mutan Ho 
(Peone River), and the left tributaries of the Ussuri River. The 
Sungari is navigable for native boats for about 100 miles above (1. e. 
southeast of) Kirin City, and by steamers from its mouth to that city. 
The Mutan Ho carries boat traffic at least as far as Ninguta. 

The western section of the Province and the valleys of the large 
rivers and their tributaries are now under cultivation, while settlers 
are steadily pushing farther and farther up the valleys, thus opening 
up the country. With the exception of rice and silk, which are not 
grown, the products of cultivation are the same as those of Fengtien. 

The Province of Heilungkiang, which means the “black dragon 
river,” is by far the largest of the three. It contains two extensive 
mountain systems, the Little Khingan Mountains in the southeast 
and the Great Khingan Mountains in the west. These mountains 
are for the most part heavily forested, and have been barely touched 
by the explorer. 

The Nonni Ho, an important tributary of the Sungari, drains the 
eastern portion of the Province, the western portion being drained by 
the Argun and Shilka, tributaries of the Amur. 


- - Ray so 
. eo 


MANCHURIA——SOWERBY. 461 


The Province is bounded on the north by the Amur, and on the 
south by the Sungari. It has practically no railways, the western 
section of the Chinese Eastern Railway only passing through the 
southwestern corner. However, the Russians have recently built a 
railway down the left bank of the Amur from Karimskaya, near 
Chita, to connect up with the recently opened Ussuri Railway at 
Khabarovsk, while steamers ply on the Amur at least from Bla- 
govyeshchensk ? (noted for a brutal massacre of Chinese by the Rus- 
sians, who some 15 years ago® drove the Chinese inhabitants, consist- 
ing of some 2,000 souls, at the point of the bayonet into the river) 
to its mouth, and up the Sungari as far as Harbin and even to Kirin. 

Of the state of cultivation and the products of this Province I can 
not speak at first hand, except to say that along the banks of the 
Sungari the rich soil is rapidly being brought under the plow for 
the production of the soya bean and other cereals. The fur-hunting 
and fishing industries are also of great importance. 

As already stated, I made four expeditions from Tientsin into 
Manchuria. The first of these had for its object the exploration of 
the forested area of western Kirin. After reaching Kaiyiian by 
train, my companion, Major Bowker, and I engaged carts and pro- 
ceeded eastward to a place called Chaoyangchen, which is situated 
within 10 or 15 miles of the outskirts of the forest, close to the 
Fengtien-Kirin border. We passed a number of villages on the way, 
and two rather large towns, Shanchengtze and Hailungfu. These 
were new and, from all accounts, of mushroom growth. Indeed, the 
road we traversed led through country that showed abundant evi- 
dence of having come under the plow but recently. 

From Chaoyangchen, where we stayed a couple of days with Dr. 
and Mrs. W. Young, of the United Free Church of Scotland Mission, 
we set out in a southeasterly direction, and, after passing the new 
township of Huinanting, where the local official did his best to stop 
our further progress, owing to the fear that we might fall foul of a 
notorious band of Hung-hu-tzu (bandits) that infested the neighbor- 
ing forest, we entered and traveled up the valley of the Hama Ho 
(Frog River). We were very soon in the forest, which here con- 
sisted mainly of oak, walnut, elm, and maple, the first three mostly 
of gigantic size. There had been conifers—pines and spruce—but 
these had been cut away by recent settlers, who were everywhere 
making large clearings, building log cabins, and cultivating the rich 
soil. 

The roads, if one may use the term, were excessively bad, and we 
had considerable difficulty in making headway. We had not gone 


2 As a matter of fact, they run up as far as Stretensk on the Shilka River. A. deC. S. 
8 This massacre took place in 1900, during the Boxer outbreak. 


462 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


far when one cart was overturned into a deep pool beside the road 
and its whole contents soaked. At one place we had to cross a 
treacherous “ niggerhead” swamp. A niggerhead swamp is one in 
which the soft, black ooze is closely dotted with peculiar tussocks of 
grass. in summer the long grass hides everything, with the result 
that in trying to cross the swamp one encounters a series of pitfalls 
as one’s feet miss the tussocks and plunge one into the ooze, often up 
to the waist. In the autumn or spring, when fire has consumed the 
long grass, as it often does, the tussocks look like so many black 
heads covered with fuzzy black hair, whence the name “ niggerhead.” 
The difficulty of getting a heavy cart across such a swamp can be 
imagined. Add to this a soaking, steady rain and it will be under- 
stood that our plight was far from pleasant. However, by the end 
of the second day we had managed to penetrate the forest sufficiently 
far for my purpose of making a typical collection of small mammals, 
so camp was pitched in a suitable spot, and I lost no time in getting 
my traps out. 

it was a wonderful place we had chosen. A beautiful stream 
flowed near by, whence the natives daily brought us fresh trout and 
grayling. Big, fat pintail snipe were abundant on the open swamps 
and recent clearings, while hazel grouse and pheasants could be 
heard, though seldom seen, in the forest itself. Many bright-plum- 
aged birds were seen, most noteworthy of which was the beautiful 
oriental roller (L'urystomus calonyx, Sharpe), with its brilliant blue 
and green plumage, crimson bill and legs. There were a great many 
of these birds about, but they kept to the tops of the highest trees 
and defied all our efforts to secure specimens, while they disported 
themselves in the air and uttered incessantly their shrill chattering 
calls. Jays, cuckoos, woodpeckers (pied and black), warblers, fly- 
catchers, finches, hawks, owls, herons, kingfishers, and grebes were 
all seen and noted. 

Small mammals were scarce, however, so we decided to push on 
farther up the valley. We finally reached its head after another 
day’s travel, where a friendly settler, practically the last in this 
direction, gave us shelter in his log-built huts. Here an interesting 
discovery was made. We had heard rumors of a wonderful lake, 
called by the natives Laolungwan, and had determined to visit it. 
Having, therefore, made ourselves comfortable at the farm, we lost 
no time in making for the lake, which lay but a mile or so away. A 
steep ascent up the head of the valley brought us to the object of our 
search, and there, like an emerald set in gold, lay the most beautiful 
lake it has been my fortune to see. It did not take long to determine 
the fact that this wonderful sheet of crystal clear water occupied the 
crater of an extinct volcano. In the course of my stay in this vicinity 
I visited another similar lake, while the native hunters told me that 


_ MANCHURIA—SOWEBRBY. 463 


scattered through the forest to the east and south was.a series of 72 
such Lung Wan (dragon pits), of which half were dry and half 
contained lakes, and that they all had their origin in one big mother 
lake far away to the east. Apparently, then, we have here a series 
of extinct voleanoes, doubtless belonging to the same system as that 
of the Chang Pei Shan, the culminating peak of which, the Lao Pei 
Shan (Paiktusan), visited for the first time by James and his party 
in 1886, is itself an extinct volcano with a lake in its crater similar 
to the one we visited. 

While ascending the valley of the Hama Ho I had frequently 
noticed outcrops of volcanic slag and lava, and subsequently, while 
traveling from this locality, found that the rock formation of the 
whole country to the north was of volcanic origin, a thick layer of 
columnar basalt lying upon a granitic massif. 

After wandering about in the forest for a couple of days in search 
of wild pig or bear, witheut success, my companion decided to 
return to civilization; but, as I was still far from satisfied with the 
results of my trapping and hunting, I stayed on. There was a band 
of Hung-hu-tzu in the vicinity that was continually on the prowl, 
and to this day it is a puzzle to me how I did not fall foul of them in 
my frequent long tramps through the forest. I had a guard of 14 
foot and 2 mounted soldiers with me, but these brave warriors kept 
to the farm and refused point-blank to accompany me on any of my 
excursions. At last word was brought in from a neighboring home- 
stead that the bandits had increased their number to 80, all armed 
with modern rifles, and that their leader had been making tender 
inquiries about the European staying at Liu’s farm. On the arrival 
of this news I received a deputation from my guard, accompanied 
by my host, Mr. Liu, and a little Shantung hunter I had engaged, 
who begged me to leave the place and return to Chaoyangchen, since, 
were I to come to any harm, they would be held responsible by the 
official at Huinanting. There seemed nothing left to do but to evacu- 
ate; but to show my independence I stayed on a couple of days 
while I gathered in my long line of traps, finally packing up my 
gear and returning to Chaoyangchen. 

Here I bought a small native boat, and with my two servants and 
the late owner of the boat as crew and a small black bear cub as super- 
cargo, I sailed down the Huifa Ho to its junction with the Sungari 
River. 

Various adventures in the way of shooting rapids and getting stuck 
on sand banks kept the journey from becoming dull. Indeed, the 
second rapid we descended so frightened the boatman that he ran 
away that night, and I had to engage another old riverman to assist 
in handling the boat. Once, through mistaking the opening in a fish 
boom that stretched across the river, we sailed bang into it. The boat 


464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


keeled over and would have capsized but for the fact that the whole 
boom gave way and we righted ship and raced on before the wind to 
the accompaniment of loud curses from the fishermen on the shore. 
It was their fault, however, for they had failed to mark the opening 
in the boom with the customary red flags. 

At the mouth of the Huifa Ho we turned southward and with con- 
siderable toil towed the boat a few miles up the Sungari till we came 
to likely looking collecting grounds. Then, crossing the river and 
choosing a good site on high ground, we pitched camp once more. I 
was very successful at this place and spent a month there. Besides 
small mammals, of which a large and interesting collection was made, 
numerous specimens of beetles and reptiles were taken at this point, 
while I was able to note and study the bird life that abounded in the 
vicinity. Botanically, too, the spot was ideal, for not only were there 
wooded areas, but there were also rocky cliffs, open uplands, wide 
clear valleys and marshes, all within easy walk of my camping site. 

It was while camped here that I was able to form some idea of the 
amount of timber that is being cut on the slopes at the sources of the 
Sungari and its tributaries. Every hour of the day dozens of huge 
raits of logs came floating past. Some of these contained twenty or 
thirty thousand feet of timber, averaging 3 to 4 feet in diameter, some- 
times much more. This timber, I was informed, was cut and hauled 
to the water’s edge during the winter by native woodcutters, who were 
engaged by timber merchants and their foremen. It was a very 
profitable business, the timber realizing a good price at Kirin City. 
They told me that there were still unlimited supplies of timber on the 
slopes of the Chang Pei Shan. 

At last, having come to the end of my supplies, I decided to return 
to civilization and one morning put off in my little boat and com- 
menced the journey down the Sungari in a fog. It was well for us 
that it was foggy that morning, for in it we were able to slip past a 
band of Hung-hu-tzu that were lying in wait for me at the mouth 
of the Huifa Ho. I should have known nothing about this but for 
the fact that a few nights before I woke up to find a man in my tent. 
By covering him with my revolver and calling my cook up from the 
next tent I made him prisoner. We then found he was armed with 
a long knife, and on his own confession he informed us that he was 
after my rifles so that he could join a band of Hung-hu-tzu across 
the river. Further inquiries of farmers across the river elicited the 
fact that this band of robbers were hanging around to hold me up 
whenever I should start down the river. As a matter of fact, a few 
days later a missionary and his wife, who were traveling by river 
from Chaoyangchen to Kirin, were held up by this same band and 
robbed of all they had. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Sowerby. PLATE 3. 


2. ON THE YALU. 50 MILES FROM ANTUNG. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Sowerby. PLATE 4. 


J. CHIMNEY ROCK AT YEN-TUNG-LA-TZU, SUNGARI RIVER, NEAR MOUTH OF 
HUI-FA Ho. 


he St al i NE 


2. COLUMNAR BASALT ON GRANITIC MAssiF, UPPER YALU, 60 MILES 
SOUTHEAST OF KIRIN. 


MANCHURIA—SOWERBY. 465 


Without any further untoward event, and, except for the shooting 
of a dangerous rapid called Shiaogno Ho, without excitement, the 
journey was accomplished in three days. At Kirin I gave the boat to 
the old boatman, thereby earning his eternal gratitude, boarded a 
paddle-wheel steamer, and reaching the railway line between Harbin 
and Changchun at the point where it crosses the Sungari, caught the 
southbound train, and was back in Tientsin once more within 48 
hours. 

The journey up the Yalu River the following spring was one of 
intense interest. Moreover, it yielded very pleasing results in the 
way ot collections of mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles, batrachians, 
and insects; was, in fact, one of my most successful expeditions into 
these regions. Having taken steamer from Tientsin to Antung, via 
Port Arthur and Dalny (Dairen), I solved the problem of transport 
up the Yalu by engaging a roomy Chinese sampan, in which my 
always bulky baggage was comfortably stowed, allowing me room to 
sleep and live as well. It was a most delightful journey and, but for 
rapids, up which the sampan had to be pulled, was accomplished 
without any great labor. 

It was disappointing, however, that, owing to the low state of the 
water and the dangerous nature of the rapids, we could not ascend 
the river farther than the town of Waichakow, about a hundred miles 
from its mouth. This decided me to turn up a tributary named Hun 
Kiang, and ascending its course till we came to suitable collecting 
grounds, I pitched camp and explored the neighboring country. The 
spot that 1 had chosen was simply alive with all kind of birds, rep- 
tiles, and insects, though, strangely enough, mammals were very 
scarce. 

Later, in descending the main river, I stopped twice en route and 
made good collections of such mammals as occurred in the country 
from both banks. I found the Korean bank more wooded than the 
Manchurian, which I put down to the influence of the Japanese, 
who look after the timber more than the Chinese, besides enforcing 
useful game laws. Particular attention was paid to the fish of the 
Yalu, with the result that a good and typical collection was made. 

The Korean population, so different from the Chinese, formed a 
never-ending source of interest. Particularly did their river craft 
attract one’s attention. Excellent watermen when it comes to the use 
of canoes and paddles, the Koreans can not approach the Chinese as 
sailors. Their primitive devices for catching the wind to assist the 
progress of their dugout canoes and boats were ludicrous when com- 
pared with the well-made, well-handled and expansive sails used by 
the Chinese. The strange thing is that, though living side by side with 
the Chinese, and with such splendid examples of river crait before 


466 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


them, the Koreans stick to their primitive dugouts, paddles, and 
pocket-handkerchief sails. 

Taking them altogether, the Koreans appear to be a poor, listless, 
lazy people, content to live under the heavy hand of their Japanese 
rulers, so long as their long-stemmed pipes do not lack tobacco and 
their flasks the crude, raw spirits which they secure from the Chinese, 
and of which they are inordinately fond. The women, so far as one 
could judge, do all or most of the hard work, the men at the best 
indulging only in fishing, at which, by the way, they are past masters. 
It may be stated here that as fishermen, hunters, and even as agri- 
culturalists the Koreans have spread into parts of Fengtien, right 
through Kirin, and may even be met with on the lower reaches of the 
Sungari, and it is remarkable how, wherever they go, they stick to 
their own dress, dugout canoes, methods of fishing, and manner of 
living. 

The trips into the forest of Northern Kirin were carried out in the 
late autumn with the object of securing specimens of the larger mam- 
mals of the country. I had heard that the town of Imienpo, on the 
Harbin-Ninguta section of the Chinese Eastern Railway, was a good 
place to make one’s headquarters while hunting in this region. This 
turned out to be correct, and during the months of September, Octo- 
ber, and part of November, 1914, [ made several excursions into the 
forests along the line, returning whenever my supplies ran out and 
revictualing at this little township. 

Owing to the lack of transport and the nature of the forest in this 
district, it was impossible to make journeys of long duration. Instead, 
with two or three local Russian hunters, my servant and I, carrying 
on our backs only the barest necessities, would sally forth for three or 
four days at a time, shoot and trap what we could, and return with 
the skins to quarters reserved in Imienpo, where we would attend to 
their preservation. 

This method, though arduous and hardly likely to produce the best 
results, served fairly well. Thus on the first trip two good specimens 
of the Manchurian wapiti were secured, as well as a roedeer, some 
birds, and a good series of small rodents. 

Subsequently I tried hard to secure a wapiti with a good pair of 
antlers, but, though I traversed long distances and put up with con- 
siderable hardship, fortune was against me, and finally I was driven 
back to headquarters with a severe attack of rheumatism. 

We next tried the country to the north of Imienpo and were re- 
warded by securing three bears and a couple of gorals, as well as a 
specimen of a black forest hare, some squirrels, minks, voles, rats, 
and mice, and some interesting birds. One of the bears was a fine 
specimen of what may be considered the Manchurian representative 
of the American grizzly. The animal measured seven feet in the flesh 


MANCHURIA—SOWERBY. 467 


from tip to tip, and was estimated at something over 600 pounds in 
weight. It was not fat, and the natives told me that this species 
did not get fat till much later in the autumn. It was subsequently 
identified with Heude’s Ursus‘ cavifrons, and appears to form, with 
other related species, a connecting link between the prehistoric cave 
bears of Europe and the North American grizzlies. So far as I am 
aware, this specimen, which now lies in the Smithsonian Institution 
collection, is the only complete one existing in any museum, though 
a skull, on which Heude based his description, lies in the Zikawei 
Museum in Shanghai. The other two bears were specimens of the 
common black bear of Manchuria, usually referred to Ursus*® tibe- 
tanus, but really a distinct species described by Heude under the name 
of U. ussuricus. 

The forest in this part was very fine, being composed of oak, pine, 
spruce, and walnut, all of large size, with a considerable sprinkling 
of various forms of maple, which in their fiery autumn foliage 
formed a riot of color hard to describe. Everywhere the under- 
growth was formed of a tangle of wild vine, richly laden with clust- 
ers of dark, well-flavored grapes, interspersed with ferns and various 
small shrubs. 

There was a plethora of edible fungi, of which the Chinese recog- 
nized some four or five varieties, and which they were gathering and 
drying for their own winter use or export. Throughout the whole 
region were many dead-fall traps of ingenious design, from which 
one argued that in the winter the country was the resort of fur trap- 
pers. Indeed, I learnt that sables, martins, ermines, minks, otters, 
and squirrels were anually caught in large numbers. 

My last expedition into Manchuria had for its object the explora- 
tion of the territory along the Amur River, but, as already explained, 
this was found impossible owing to the attitude of the Russian 
authorities. Rifles, shotguns, and cameras were forbidden on the 
Amur, while every stranger was viewed with distrust and suspicion. 
The reason for this was that a considerable number of Austrian and 
German prisoners had escaped from the detention camps in the Amur 
Province and formed a menace to the local populace. Not only so, 
but 1t was known that passports were being forged by the Germans 
in Shanghai or Tientsin, by means of which their nationals were 
getting about as British or French subjects. Thus it will readily be 
understood that a naturalist with his rifle, ammunition, and camera, 
and other more mysterious implements would prove an object of deep 
suspicion. Under the circumstances, after having traveled down the 
Sungari almost to its junction with the Amur, and having made col- 
lections at one or two places on the Heilungkiang bank of the former, 


*\Now superseded by the generic name Speleus, Brookes. 
5 Now superseded by the generic name Selenarctos, Heude. 


468 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


I decided to abandon the project of exploring the Amur till a more 
suitable occasion, meanwhile returning to Harbin, and thence pro- 
ceeding to Imienpo once more to put in another autumn in the forest 
of that district. 

To show the attitude of the Russians at this time, it may be stated 
that hardly had my companion, an American, and I left Imienpo for 
a trip into the forest than we were arrested as spies and narrowly 
escaped confinement in Vladivostok, if not a quick and sudden de- 
mise with our backs to a brick wall. It was only through the good 
offices of a friendly engineer on the railway, who got into communica- 
tion with our respective consuls in Harbin, that we were finally 
released. 

While on the lower Sungari I had an opportunity of seeing and 
talking with some of those strange people, the Fishskin Tartars, 
descendants of the old aboriginal Tartar inhabitants of Manchuria. 
But a small remnant of this tribe now exists, living in small com- 
munities along the banks of the Sungari and Amur, and obtaining 
a precarious subsistence by fishing, hunting, and a very little culti- 
vation of the soil. Their chief town, La-ha-su-su, where about 500 
families exist, lies at the junction of the Sungari and Amur; but 
there are a number at Fuchinhsien, and, I was told, at the mouth of 
the Ussuri River and up some of the side streams. Those I saw had 
taken to Chinese dress, except for hunting coats and caps of deer- 
skin; but they could easily be distinguished from the Chinese. 

Mention should be made of an attempt, which I believe is proving 
very successful, to clear and cultivate on a large scale the low-lying 
land on the north (Heilungkiang) bank of the Sungari, near Fuchin- 
hsien. The scheme is under the management of Europeans, who 
have imported American machinery for the purpose. Up to the 
time of our visit floods and the ravages of insects and disease had 
seriously hindered successful operations; but by diking in an enor- 
mous area of swampy land, and with the use of powerful pumps, 
splendid results have at last been achieved and bountiful harvests 
secured. This is in the nature of pioneer work, but its success will 
doubtless lead to further enterprise in the same direction, and we 
may shortly see wide tracts of rich and highly fertile land brought 
under the steam plow in this part of the country. Manchuria lies 
in the track of the great wheat belt of the world, and as the forests 
are cleared away we shall see a steady development of wheat growing 
and a corresponding increase in prosperity of the whole country. 

In regard to the clearing away of the timber, which is only a 
matter of time, it seems a great pity that so large a timber reserve 
as that of Heilungkiang Province, not to mention that of Kirin, 
should be exploited, as it is now, in so wasteful a manner. Then 
again one would like to put in a word for the fast diminishing game 


ee ee eee 


MANCHURIA—SOWERBY. 469 


birds and animals of the country. On both these scores some very 
careful and stringent legislation is urgently needed if the future 
welfare of the people that occupy Manchuria is to be considered. 

Though as yet the mineral resources of Manchuria have not been 
thoroughly explored, there are ample signs that in this line the 
country is as wealthy as in other ways. Gold has been washed in the 
rivers for a considerable period; while coal mines and iron occur in 
the south. Other minerals known to occur in useful quantities are 
lead and copper. Slate also is quarried in some parts. 

The early history of Manchuria is more or less shrouded in mys- 
tery, but from what has been handed down it would appear that this 
land of primeval forests was occupied by tribes of savages, who lived 
entirely by hunting and fishing. These early Manchurians (this 
term is not to be confused with Manchus) must have been closely 
allied to the North American Indians, or perhaps it would be better 
to say that they and the people who populated North America be- 
longed to the same ethnic race.° There is a striking resemblance 
noticeable even to-day between the North American Indians and the 
Gilyaks and Goldis of the Amur, Sungari, and Ussuri regions. The 
last, to whom belong the Fishskin Tartars, up to comparatively 
recent times, clothed themselves in the skins of animals and fish, the 
latter fact being responsible for the name “ Yu-p’i-ta-tzu” given 
them by the Chinese. 

The early savages of Manchuria were continually engaged in inter- 
tribal warfare, which resulted from time to time in one or other of 
the tribes gaining the ascendancy and welding the others into a 
common State, sufficiently powerful to carry on successful warfare 
with neighboring highly civilized kingdoms. Thus China itself on 
more than one occasion was actually attacked and subdued, and Man- 
churian dynasties placed upon the throne. The last of these was the 
Manchu dynasty, or Ta Ch’ing (Great Clear), whose founder was 
the famous Narhurchu. Having established themselves in China, 
the Manchus practically deserted their own country, and except for 
the rich and fertile plains of the west that country must have slipped 
back into a more or less wild State, occupied by but a remnant of the 
old tribes. Then apparently began an immigration of Chinese, 
which has gone on steadily ever: since, being accelerated in recent 
years by the wonderful opportunities the rich forest land and great 
river valleys have to offer the farmer and husbandman. 

* % % * % * * 

Though the civilization of the Chinese dates back to such antiquity, 
it is a great mistake to suppose that China is a decadent country, or 


6Dr. A. Hrdlitka, ‘‘ Remains in Eastern Asia of the Race That Peopled America.” 
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, yol. 60, No. 16. 


12573°—21 31 


4'70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


its people a decadent race. In spite of periodical floods, famine, 
disease, and civil war, the population of China is, and has always 
been, on the increase. To-day many of the Provinces can not sup- 
port this increase, and we have now, even as it was throughout the 
duration of the Ch’ing dynasty, a steady emigration of Chinese of 
all classes into Chinese Turkestan, southern Mongolia, and Man- 
churia. Now that the rigorous bureaucratic rule of Russia under 
the old régime has vanished, there is nothing to prevent Siberia being 
overrun, peacefully, by the Chinese settler and exploited by Chinese 
merchants, who can hold their own against any other people of these 
regions. 


‘(pigeieM—~21eT ogo qainoedtime 


se aero ere 


Be ielntetaticeetrs sn er 
aS. nq osezs oft80 


PLATE I. 


¢. 


2. 


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¢  SSUISSE AU 


eal 


Imprimée par V Neubert, Prague-Smichov. 


THE ORIGIN AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE 
CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE. 


By JINDKIcH MATIEGKA, 


Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Anthropological Institute, Czech 
Unwersity, Prague. 


[With 4 plates.] 
NOTE. 


The notable history of old Bohemia, the recent liberation of the Czechoslovak 
people after three centuries of forcible subjection to Austria, and the won- 
derful anabasis ef the Czechoslovak volunteer troops in Russia and Siberia, 
have raised in many minds a desire to know more about these people and their 
country. It is known that they are the western Slavs, but their exact deriva- 
tion, their early history, the relation of the Czechs to the Slovaks, and of both 
to the other three main Slavic groups—the Poles, Russians, and Jugoslavys, 
together with their actual physical characteristics, are matters on which there 
was hitherto but scarce information. It was to supply authoritative informa- 
tion of this nature, based on scientific research of most recent years, that 
Professor Matiegka, one of the most competent and respected anthropologists 
of Europe, has published during the past year two brief treatises, one under 
the title of ‘“‘ The Bodily Characteristics of the Czech People” (8°, Prague, 1919), 
and the other on the “ Origin and Beginnings of the Czechoslovak People ’”’ 
(8°, Prague, 1920). The present article is a partial abstract of the first with 
a part translation of the latter treatise. 

The Czechoslovak Republic, as constituted after the peace conference, com- 
prises the territories of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Subcarpathian Russia, 
and a portion of Silesia. 

These territories cover nearly 55,000 square miles, and have approximately 
14,000,000 inhabitants, of whom about 7,000,000 are Czechs, 2,800,000 Slovaks, 
and 450,000 Ruthenians. Besides these, there are about 3,000,000 Germans, de- 
scendants of the twelfth to nineteenth century immigrants, and about 1,000,000 
Magyars, who in the course of their domination over Slovakia acquired domicile 
in that country.’ The density of population is very great in Bohemia, reach- 
ing 210 per square mile (United States about 35, State of New York, including 
the city of New York, nearly 200 per square mile). 

Bohemia lies in the heart of the European continent, the remaining Provinces 
extending below and partly into the Carpathians, towards the east. Bohemia 
itself forms a remarkable geographical unit. It is a great diamond-shaped 


1The figures here given are merely estimates. The only official data are those of the 
1910 Austrian and Hungarian censuses, which are grossly inaccurate as to the propor- 
tions of the different nationalities. The first census of the Republic is to be taken in Feb- 
ruary, 1921. See La République Tchécoslovaque, 8° Prague, 1920; Statistical Hand- 
book of the Czecho-Slovak Republic (in Boh.), 8°, Prague, 1920; and Slovakia in the 
Light of Statistics (in Boh.), 8°, Prague, 1920. 
471 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Matiegka. erent 


7 


7S e-——=P 


REPUBLIQUE os a ar Nf aye ) 

TCHECO-SLOVAQUE. lea ; “cae | soe OREN GAL" syigcenliza SEONG Re GEL 

Echelle 13,000.00. DIKE! ( fy > wk wy 3 Rae, ; 
1cm=30 km. ‘a a eA an RA 


Carte dressée par Frantisek Machat. 
° Imprimd: VN rt, Prague-Smichov. 
FRONTISPIECE.—THE CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC. Aiba ti Neuere eral 


‘adfq, ULISBIG puv Uenesny jo sreling-aig 

‘SeLIBPUNOd IIJOV[VIP JUESeIg ———— ‘Spunoy, V 

*SOqlI} ABIY JO S9T10}II10} JeqyeT -------- ‘S01NJ[ND ISOPlO oy} JO SoqIs pue sfeling e 
‘SOUL], OLOPSIYIIG WI VIAvIOW pue vimeyog jo suljdosd ey,—T ‘“dI7 


we* 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


472 


CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE—MATIEGKA. 473 


' amphitheater surrounded on all sides by mountains. Moravia, Slovakia, and 
Subcarpathian Russia, well protected by mountains in the north, are relatively 
open toward the south; but the western part of Slovakia is protected on this 
side by the Danube. 

The territories are rich in natural resources, and Bohemia with Moravia are 
highly developed, developed in fact to the limit, agriculturally. Northern 
Slovakia and northeastern Russinia abound in forests. Of the population of 
Bohemia 41 per cent are industrial, 32 per cent agricultural; in Moravia con- 
ditions are about reversed. The Slovaks and Russinians are essentially agri- 
eultural and pastoral (61 per cent agricultural, 20 per cent industrial). 

A. HrpricKa, 


ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN THE CZECHOSLOVAK TERRITORIES. 
OLDER CULTURES OF CENTRAL BOHEMIA. 


Various finds in the Czechoslovak territories relating to man’s 
antiquity show that man existed in these countries already during 
the diluvial epoch, contemporaneously with the formation of the 
deposits of yellow brick clays and certain gravels and while the 
fauna still included the mammoth, the rhinoceros, the elk, the rein- 
deer, the wild horse, the cave bear, and the cave hyena. The climate 
at that time was colder than at present, the period corresponding to 
the latest ice invasion, when most of northern Europe was covered 
with glaciers. The mountains surrounding Bohemia were then also 
covered with ice and snow, but in the foothills and in the ice free 
interior there were “stations” of diluvial man. 

The most precious discoveries of remains of man from this period 
have been made in Moravia, in the vicinity of Brno (Briin), in caves 
near Stramberk,? and especially at Ptedmost, where Professors K¥iz 
and Maska made extensive excavations and important collections. 
Bohemia itself has given us so far the diluvial remains of Podbaba 
(a skull, etc.) and of a number of other localities. The finds include 
the bones of extinct mammals and many paleolithic implements. The 
art of polishing stone or of making pottery was as yet unknown. But 
finds in Bohemia itself have been thus far all slightly more recent 
than those of Moravia, dating from the period of recession of the 
last ice invasion. In Moravia, on the other hand, we have remnants 
not merely from the period of the last ice invasion itself, but also 
older, such for example as the Sipka lower jaw, and others. 

An interesting feature of cranial remains from the more recent 
periods is that some of them retain more or less the characteristics 
of tha older diluvial (Neanderthal) forms, such as. pronounced 
supra-orbital ridges and sloping forehead, justifying the opinion 

2 Nore.—Pronunciation of Czech letters: ¢ C—=as ch in child or cherry; 8 S—as sh in 


shoe or sherry ; 4 Z—=as j in French jolie; 7 R—=difficult sound, approached by combination 
- of rz or rzh, 


474 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


that early man in Europe, including the Czechoslovak territories, 
did not completely die out, but left traces in the later population. 

These ancient strains represent the oldest, even though but a 
feeble root, of the people of these regions. 


NEOLITHIC POPULATIONS. 


If man in the Czechoslovak territories was scarce during the 
diluvial epoch, he was much more common there during the neo- 
lithic times. Meanwhile the climatic and environmental conditions 
had considerably changed; the diluvial fauna had become extinct; 
the reindeer receded to the far north. Man himself had advanced 
from the stage of a hunter to pastoral and agricultural life. His 
occupation now bound him to the soil, and we find his remains along 
rivers and other favorable locations both in Bohemia and Moravia, 
and even in parts farther east. Southernmost Bohemia, however, 
appears to have remained unsettled, which may be explained through 
its higher elevation, and hence colder climate with lesser fertility 
of soil, which characterizes this region to this day. 

The remains of a large number of neolithic settlements in Bohemia 
and Moravia lead to the conclusion that the earlier part of the 
neolithic period was of long duration in these countries. Its begin- 
nings in the Czechoslovak territories may be placed at as far as 4000, 
possibly even 5000 to 6000 B. C. 

The neolithic culture was distinguished by numerous and char- 
acteristic stone implements, various implements and tools of bone 
and horn, and especially by pottery. Some of the pottery was 
decorated in various ways, and its characteristics help us to sub- 
divide the epoch into a number of secondary phases or periods. It 
is unknown whether the art of making pottery originated gradually 
in the later part of the diluvial epoch or whether it developed or 
was introduced into the territories in question during the neolithic 
times, but no pottery has hitherto been found except in connection 
with neolithic or later burials. 

Curiously, we do not know as yet how the early neolithic popula- 
tion of Bohemia and its sister lands dealt with its dead, having thus 
far found no burials; but on the Rhine burials that may be attributed 
to a related stock have been discovered, and it was found that the 
people to whom they belonged were of the dolichocephalic type, which 
was widely prevalent in Europe in the neolithic period. 

Approximately 2000 to 1500 B. C. there began to enter from vari- 
ous directions into what are now the Czechoslovak territories, out- 
side influences, and with them came the first objects of metal—small 
copper axes and bronze jewelry. The culture changed, forming a 
large “transitional” period of a number of phases or localized 


CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE—MATIEGKA. 


On, % gent 


bt eaes' | 5 pinned 
’ = . 
"tp eyegees e* 


Fie, 2.—Characteristie objects and crania from the older cultures 
of the Czechoslovak Territories, 


1. 


b. 


475 


The Paleolithic 
Period (ending 
10,000-8,000 
Big Ce ahi Ei he 
Podbaba skull. 


. The Neolithic 


Period (ending 
2000—1500_ B. 
C.). 


8. Transitional 


Period. a,b, 
Northern phases. 
ec, Western 
phase. d, South- 
ern and south- 
eastern phase. 


.- The Older 


Bronze Period. 
(1200—800 B. 
C.) 


A76 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


developments. The people of this period buried their dead in the 
contracted or “ fetus-in-utero” position, with the body lying on its 
side. With the body were buried various mortuary offerings, par- 
ticularly pottery. The multitude of objects known as a result from 
this period permits us to recognize the influence on the population 
of southwestern, western, northwestern, and northern, besides 
southern and southeastern cultures. There was evidently a very free 
contact with the outside world. 

Besides cultural influences, however, there were also during this 
period actual influxes of other people. It has been found that skulls 
from burials showing objects of nordic culture are dolichocephalic, 
while those of burials showing a strong influence of western cultures 
are brachycephalic, in addition to which there were mixed elements. 
The population assumed a considerable heterogeneity. The preva- 
lent cranial type was probably the dolichocephalic, but accompanied, 
there are some reasons to believe, not with blond but rather dark hair 
and eyes. 


THE BRONZE CULTURE. 


On the basis of the final “ transitional” neolithic period and under 
the influence of additional contacts there next developed in the Czecho- 
slovak territories, approximately about 1200 B. C., the “older bronze 
culture.” The body was buried in the contracted position, was sur- 
rounded by stones, and with it were placed various forms of pottery, 
nicely shaped and with characteristic decorations. In addition there 
are also bronze armlets and pins, bronze or gold rings and earrings, 
amber-bead necklaces, characteristic bronze axes, and bronze daggers. 
Large burial grounds and a multitude of valuable burial offerings 
show that the people of this period lived in larger settlements, had 
trade relations with the north as well as the south of Europe and 
enjoyed considerable prosperity. 

This older bronze culture, while extending beyond the borders of 
Bohemia, found its highest development in the center of that coun- 
try. The skeletal remains from this period show people of higher 
stature, which may perhaps be explained by generally better living 
conditions. The skulls are prevalently oblong (dolichocephalic) 
and elliptical, with more or less marked parietal prominence. The 
population may be regarded in the main as the result of a fusion of 
the various ethnic elements of the transitional period. 


THE MOUND CULTURE OF SOUTHWESTERN BOHEMIA. 


The older bronze culture lasted according to the estimates of 
Czech archeologists up to the eighth century B. C. About that time 
the people of Bohemia became subject to the influence of two new 
outside ethnic elements which penetrated into the country, one from 


CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE—-MATIEGKA, 477 


the northeast and the other from the southwest, and which occupied 
parts of the territory. In southwestern Bohemia the new invasion 
gives rise to a special characteristic culture the remains of which 
are found in mounds (see figs. 2-5). The burial is generally on 
the level of the ground, is surrounded by stones, and covered by a 
moderate sized earth mound. Occasionally in addition the mound . 
itself is surrounded by a ring of stones. 

The older mounds yield objects of the advanced bronze period, 
such as bronze swords and other weapons, typical long bronze pins, 
armlets, etc.; but in later burials there begin to appear also objects 
of iron (knives, arrow points, etc.) and bronze objects character- 
istic of the younger bronze period. Finally, with the latest burials 
of this prolonged intrusive phase there are found objects of Roman 
derivation, such as coins and keys. The bodies of the mound builders 
were either cremated or buried as a whole; but even in the latter 
cases the bones, due to the construction of the graves, are generally in 


r 


=I Z 
Soe Ey, 
5 OS SP ER 


Fic. 3.—A section of a mound, showing two old burials covered by piles of stone, and 
an intrusive more superficial interment. 


such poor preservation that it has not as yet been possible to form a 
precise opinion concerning the physical characteristics of the stock 
or tribe concerned. From the fact that mounds of this nature may 
be followed into Bavaria and farther on into Switzerland and 
France, we may judge that the physical type of the mound people in 
Bohemia resembled that of those regions, and there is some evidence 
to show that this was a dark-haired people, with rather a short skull. 
A gradual transition of the mound culture to the plain Slav culture 
in southern Bohemia (sixth to seventh century) indicates that the 
mound population was at least partly preserved and assimilated into 
the later Slav people. 


ASH-URN CEMETERIES OF NORTHEASTERN BOHEMIA. 


While or even before the mound culture began to spread over 
southwestern Bohemia, the northeastern part of the country began 
to be overspread by another and larger ethnic stream, which oc- 


A78 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


cupied first of all the sparsely peopled northeastern portions of the 
territory, but was soon overflowing across the more central regions, 
and which eventually, strengthened by new accretions, occupied all of 
Bohemia. The culture of this people is characterized in the first 
place by a special manner of disposing of the dead. The dead were 
cremated, the remains of the bones were deposited in urns, and these 
were interred in communal burial places which are commonly known 
as “urn fields” or ash-urn cemeteries. Besides the ashes and charred 
bones, however, there were placed in the urns also burial offerings, 
such as jewels and even weapons; while about the urns were placed 
other pieces of 
pottery, so that 
the burial occa- 
sionally resembles 
a nest of ceramics. 
The forms and 
decorations of the 
urns and offerings 
4 ere =6vhave their own 
<s characteristics, 
and with time 
show gradual 
changes, which 
permit us to clas- 
sify this period 
into some second- 
ary phases that 
can be traced up- 
ward directly to 
the early histori- 
cal Slavonic time. 

The influence of 
this new north- 
eastern culture ex- 

Fic. 4.—A cross-section of an urn burial on the Pi¢é moun- tended over cen- 
tain, near Dobfichoy. : : 
tral Bohemia with- 
out evidently displacing the older population, for there are instances 
where side by side with cremation we find also the surviving habit of 
contracted burial. 

Due to universal cremation among these early Slav people, their 
physical type has not as yet been definitely determined; but some re- 
mains of bones indicate that they were of moderate stature and prob- 
ably of light eyes and light brown hair, resembling the old Slav pop- 
ulations of Lusatia and Silesia, regiéns from which the influx oc- 
curred. 


YN 


e 


FSS 


a 
a C 
oH 
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7 


rYORS 


a 


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CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE—MATIEGKA. A79 


THE GALLIC (LA TENE) AND THE ROMAN PERIODS. 


From the second century B. C. to the first century A. D., the cen- 
tral parts of Bohemia suffered a temporary invasion from the west by 
still another Gallic tribe, a physically strong and generally advanced 
stock, whose culture may be traced westward as far as the drainage 
areas of the Marne and Seine Rivers. They were evidently warlike 
people of Keltic derivation and their skeletal remains show prev- 
alently a tall stature with mixed cranial type (about one-third 
brachycephalic). They were bearers of the La Téne culture, traces 
of which extend as far as Moravia, Poland, and even Slovakia. They 
formed settlements in Bohemia which were of some duration. 

The La Téne culture in its latter phases begins to show contact 
with Roman culture, and toward the end the marks of such a contact 
are numerous. Finally there are even burials showing exclusively 
Roman culture, but found only singly and dispersed. 

Notwithstanding these new influences, the Slav mode of cremation 
of the dead extended gradually over the entire country, displacing the 
other methods. The mortuary offerings of the first to sixth centu- 
ries show considerable development in metal objects with Roman 
influence. As cremation was then universal, we have no adequate 
data on the physical qualities of the people during this period, but 
there was doubtless a considerable diversity. During these times 
still other tribes entered Bohemia. One of these, to whom we ascribe 
the so-called “ Merovingian burials,” was evidently a Germanic tribe, 
while the others were additional Slavonic groups. 

The Merovingian graves (sixth to seventh century, A. D.) are 
thinly dispersed over the northwestern districts of Bohemia, and it 
is possible that they belong essentially to Franc traders, with indi- 
vidual women who may have married into the country. The graves 
show extended skeletons with dolichocephalic skulls. The mortuary 
offerings include, besides characteristic pottery, iron weapons, glass 
beads, and in female graves considerable characteristic jewelry, with 
glass-bead necklaces, bone combs, etc. Contemporaneous with the 
Merovingian graves is an extension of Slavonic graves over all south- 
ern Bohemia. 

HISTORIC PERIOD. 


The above period passes directly into the historic Czech period, 
the period of the Bohemian dukes, and shortly after are noticeable 
the influences of Christianity. Cremation burials with mortuary 
offerings diminish, to be replaced by ordinary interments; but the 
extended bodies are still buried with the head toward the west and 
feet toward the east, as if to look toward the east. The grave is 
occasionally surrounded or covered by stones, later by posts or boards, 


480 


Fig, 5.—Characteristic objects and crania from the newer cultures of the 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


5. 


a) 


%. 


8. 


2 


Czechoslovak Territories. 


Mound Cul- 
ture of 8S. 
W. #Bohe- 
mia, Keltic. 
(1000 B. C. 
to 100 A, 
D.) 


Urn - Field 
and Subse- 
quent Cul- 
ture, Slavic. 
(About 900 
Bo (Ca tot 
A. D.) 


La Tene 
Culture, 
Ke iG ae’. 
(200 B. C. 
to A, D.) 


Slav-Ro- 
man Period. 
(I-V_ Cent, 
A. D.) 


Merovin- 
gian Cul 
ture (local- 
ized). (VI- 
VII Cent. 
A. D.). 


10. Later Slav 


Period. 
(VI-XII 
Cent. A. 
D2). 


431 


“kep 


CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE—-MATIEGKA. 


ee 


SIq} 0} JSIszed seouerey 


‘soldepunogd ddeTRIq: -—-----—----- 
“sotTlepunoqd [eqrqy, italien se sdie-iawepictisl «temo 
‘SOLIepuUnod [VIoulAOIg —~*—-°-—°—* 


IP O1}D9[VIP 9G} YOM Ul PUY BIAGIOW pue VIMTEYO” JO Soqts} ALI_ PIO ey} JO Solt0j{419} 04} Surmoys seory—9 ‘oT 


= 


> : 
Ch er 


482 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


and finally the dead were buried in simple quadrilateral wooden coffins. 
For a long time, however, the old customs were still manifested by 
the inclusion in the grave of clay or wooden vessels, evidently con- 
tainers of food and drink for the last journey of the departed. In 
addition there is found, especially in female and children’s graves, 
considerable jewelry, and eventually also Bohemian silver coins 
(tenth to twelfth century). 

The reverence toward older burials of other peoples, the care 
shown in the burials of children and babies, the latter of whom 
frequently accompany the mother’s body, and other signs are wit- 
nesses of the gentleness and advanced status of the people of this 
period. 

The skeletons of this time show relatively high stature. The skulls, 
though already historically identified as Slavonic, are still in the 
majority of cases dolichocephalic or but mesocephalic, and only as 
we advance toward our period the proportion of short-headedness 
shows a material increase. In general the skeletal remains indicate 
that the Czech population of that time arose by the mixture of 
the more recently arrived with the remnants of the older peoples 
that occupied the territory. Then the Slav remains become suddenly 
so numerous and widespread that we are evidently confronted by 
recent new additions of Slavic tribes, among whom in all probability 
was also the tribe of “ Czechs ” from whom was derived the present 
name of the people as well as the country, “Cechy.” The latest 
influx of Slavic tribes is placed by the historians into the fifth cen- 
tury and is still alive in Czech traditions, in which the name 
“Cech” is represented as that of the “father” or chief of the 
tribe at the time of their advent into the more central part of Bo- 
hemia, which has ever since remained their seat of occupation. 


THE PEOPLE OF MORAVIA, SILESIA, AND SLOVAKIA. 


In the preceding paragraphs attention has been centered on Bo- 
hemia. In the remaining territories of the present Czechoslovak 
territories ethnic developments proceeded in much the same manner. 
There is a lack of the mound culture in Moravia and Slovakia, and 
hence of the first Keltic invasion, but the La Téne culture, repre- 
senting the second Keltic stream, is partly represented. Merovingian 
graves are even scarcer in Moravia than in Bohemia and are limited 
to a small district in the south. 

Silesia, although well peopled already in the neolithic period, is 
especially characterized by its urn field burials, hence by Slav 
population. 

From Slovakia we have finds from the earlier neolithic, and from 
the late neolithic transitional period; eventually the whole territory 


CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE—MATIEGKA. 483 


becomes covered by the urn field culture of the Slavs. A few spots 
of the La Téne culture are known, however, even from this country. 


DEDUCTIONS. 


The above brief review of the results of modern archeological and 
anthropological research in the lands of the present Czechoslovak 
Republic leads to the following deductions: 

These territories have been peopled uninterruptedly since at least 
the early neolithic period, notwithstanding the influence and re- 
peated invasions of outside peoples. The culture changed from time 
to time, but we may always observe the transitional changes from 
the older to the newer conditions, showing that there was no actual 
interruption. But the influx of various ethnic elements resulted in 
the gradual formation of a mixed people, composed of remnants of 
the old elements, as well as of the more recent comers. Due to the 
preponderant eventual influence of the Slav tribes, this population 
enters the historical arena as the Czechoslovak people, but the physical 
characteristics of this people show for long and even to this day their 
rather heterogeneous origin and admixture. 

Taking Bohemia alone we find that archeologically and in rough 
lines the country is divided into three large areas. (See fig. 1.) 

The central area was evidently peopled first and uninterruptedly 
from diluvial times. This area saw the development and passing of 
practically all the cultures of the country, though it was not influenced 
by all in the same degree. 

The second area, the southwest, but sparsely peopled in early times, 
later remains long in the hold of the Keltic mound people, who 
eventually fuse with the Slavonic arrivals. 

The third area, the northeast, also but sparsely peopled in the 
earlier times, becomes later the home of a people whose remains are 
deposited in the cremation urn-burial fields. This is the old Slav 
territory, the people of which with new additions from their sources 
farther northeast eventually prevail over all the country and give 
it its subsequent marked character. 

In Moravia we have no mounds, and we may only recognize, outside 
of the diluvial and the neolithic periods, the northern Slavic urn- 
field area and a southern portion with cultural diversity. Slovakia 
resembles Moravia, except perhaps in respect of the diluvial epoch, 
but a great deal of research remains to be made in this country that 
for so long was blighted by the Magyar domination. Of Russinia 
we know as yet but very little archeologically. 


ARCHEOLOGY YS. HISTORY. 


_Meager early historical accounts speak of the Boii as the oldest 
inhabitants of Bohemia, and of the Kotini as those of Moravia. Both 


484 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


were Keltic tribes belonging to a stock of people which extended all 
over what is now south Germany and over Switzerland into France. 

It was formerly supposed that the Keltic Boii and after them the 
Germanic Markomanni occupied all Bohemia; but Niederle has 
shown on the basis of both historical and archeological evidence 
that the settlements of the Boii were restricted to the southwestern 
part of the territory, and, judging from the archeological evidence, he 
ascribes to these people the mounds of southwestern Bohemia. These 
mounds agree closely with those of Bavaria and may be traced west- 
ward from that region. A historical note that in the year 114 B. C. 
the Germanic Cimbry, in their advance eastward from the Rhine, 
were at the foot of the Bohemian forest repulsed by the Boil, indi- 
cates the power of this tribe. But already before the first half of 
the first century A. D. their domination in Bohemia was at an end. 
This decline is possibly connected with the defeat which they had 
suffered from the Dacian chief Burvista and their subsequent con- 
centration along the Danube, rather than with the advance into 
their territory of the Markomanni as represented by some historians. 

The archeological finds, as already indicated, lead us to the con- 
clusion that besides the Boii another Keltic tribe had reached 
the Bohemian territory in its more central parts, namely, the La 
Tene people. On the other hand, no graves or sites have as yet 
been found which could be attributed to the Germanic Markomanns 
and Kvades (Moravia), tribes which are mentioned by early histo- 
rians. The Markomanni are supposed to have been led into Bo- 
hemia by Marobud eight or nine years B. C., but their domination, 
if such it was, seems to have been of a political rather than cultural 
nature, and they leit no settlements or burials that could thus far 
be identified. The power of Marobud was doubtless built largely 
on the peoples he controlled, which explains the sudden loss of im- 
portance of the Markomanni after his defeat. The very seat of 
Marobud has not as yet been positively traced in Bohemia, all of 
which points to the ephemeral nature of the Markomann occupation. 


THE SLAVIC TRIBES. 


We have seen that on one hand both the archeological evidence 
and the early historical accounts indicate survivals in the country 
of remnants of the older populations and their eventual fusion with 
the Czech people. On the other hand, history as well as archeology 
has come to the conclusion that Slav tribes penetrated into the 
territories of the present Czechoslovakia long before the first men- 
tion in history of the Czech tribe. According to all evidence they 
were the people of the urn-field burials. These urn fields extend 
northeastward into territory which was the cradle of the Slavs; 


CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE—MATIEGKA. 485 


their culture passes gradually into the historic Slavonic culture; 
the pre-Christian historic Slavs of these territories used cremation 
as their universal system of burial; and, finally, there is no scientific 
possibility of attributing the urn-field burials with their remains 
either to Keltic or Germanic tribes. 

The rich archeological evidence renders possible the following 
estimates as to the coming of the Slavic tribes: 

(1) Penetration of Slavs, with Lusatian culture, into northeastern 
Bohemia, and thereafter toward the center of the country, approxi- 
mately 1000 to 800 B. C. 

(2) Extension of these tribes over central Bohemia, their mixing 
there with the older population, and their development of a modified 
culture, about 800 to 600 B. C. 

(3) Their numerical augmentation in northeastern Bohemia—500 
to 200 B. C. 

(4) Their gradual extension over the whole country—about 300 
B. C. to the beginning of our era. 

(5) A fusion of the preponderant Slav population with the rem- 
nants of the Keltic tribes—first to fifth centuries A. D. 

(6) The addition of still other Slav bodies, one of which was the 
strong Czech tribe that eventually gave its name to the people of the 
country—fifth to sixth centuries A. D. 

The earliest known Czech historian, Kosmas (b. 1045), had no 
idea that Bohemia had ever been occupied by any except the Slav 
peoples; but Kosmas’s accounts show that even to his time there 
were over different parts of the Bohemian territories different related 
Slav tribes, with the Czechs occupying the center of the country. 
Due to forestation of large intervening tracts of territory and their 
different admixtures as well as contacts, these tribes developed certain 
cultural differences, traces of which, with traces of dialectical nature, 
exist in the Czechoslovak lands to this day. A, series of the names 
of these late tribes has been preserved, but in the course of time the 
population has become so intermixed and fused that the names to-day 
are little more than memories. Nevertheless, anthropological exami- 
nation of the people from different parts of the Czechslovak terri- 
tories shows certain differences of type, which are doubtless connected 
with these earlier subdivisions and different admixtures of the people. 
(See fig. 6.) 

The Slav tribes of Bohemia extended in historic times well beyond 
the boundaries of the country toward the south of the Danube, and in 
a southwestern direction into Bavaria (regio Slavorum of that 
country). These overflows later became Germanized. 

From the twelfth century onward, a gradual German colonization, 
favored for political reasons by some of the earlier Bohemian kings, 


12573°—21——82 


486 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


and later by events, took place on the western and northern out- 
skirts of Bohemia, with some penetration into the interior. This 
accounts for the present German population of the Republic, and 
for some recent German admixture. 

In Moravia the knowledge of the earlier Slav tribes is more ob- 
scure; but there are several large old groups whose territorial dis- 
tribution, with dialectic and other differences, have been better pre- 
served to date than those of the tribes in Bohemia. 

The southeastern part of Moravia and the subcarpathian territory 
toward the east, is occupied by the Slovaks. External influences which 
this tribe has suffered in the course of its existence have produced a 
certain amount of dialectic and cultural differences; nevertheless 
everything shows their common origin with the rest of the Slav tribes 
of the Czechoslovak territories. 


CONCLUSION. 


From the data here briefly given it is seen that the roots of the 
present Czechoslovak people are multiple, as in the case of prac- 
tically all other now existing branches of the white race, and that 
some of them reach into hazy antiquity. Besides a little of the 
ancient blood, there is a Keltic and to some extent also a Germanic or 
Nordic infusion. 

Mixtures of this nature, where the racial differences are not ex- 
treme, represent as a rule favorable biological as well as cultural 
conditions, and this with the intense struggle for existence imposed 
upon them by their geographical location, accounts doubtless for 
the historical prowess and acknowledged capabilities of the Czecho- 
slovak people. 

A few notes may be added concerning the physical characteristics 
of the present Czechoslovaks: 

The general average stature of the adult males is 169 centimeters, 
of adult females 157 centimeters. The head is of good size and 
generally brachycephalic. The latter feature, as we have seen, is 
of historic development without any recent heterogeneous immigra- 
tion. The brains, even in proportion to stature, show very favor- 
able proportions. In pigmentation (color of eyes and hair) the 
people range from blonds to brunettes with preponderance of the 
latter. On the whole, physically as well as mentally, they represent 
a sound stock and one of favorable appearance. 


3See among others Weisbach (A.), Kérpermessungen verschiedener Menschenrassen. 
Berlin, 1878. 


“AONVYS NI SAITIVY SHL HLIM SNILHSIS SHVAOTSOHOAZD 


G AlVid “ey Salle W\I—" 6161 ‘Wodey urluosYyyIWS 


PLATE 3. 


9.—Matiegka. 


Smithsonian Report, 1 


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Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Matiegka. PLATE 4. 


CZECH CHILDREN, NOW LIVING IN BALTIMORE. 


—— 


GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION IN AMERICA. 


By ALBERT PERRY BRIGHAM. 


The evolution of geography on the west side of the Atlantic Ocean 
has, like every other great movement, been a continuous process. But 
we may for convenience say that about 30 years ago a new epoch 
began. Influences already at work came, in a somewhat accelerated 
manner, into fruition, until at the close of the period, the Great War 
has brought to geographic investigation and geographic teaching 
unexpected emphasis and a new array of problems. 
~ In 1890 the National Geographic Society had been organized for 
two years and had published a few bulletins. The American Geo- 
graphical Society had then pursued its work for nearly 40 years. It 
was domiciled in a downtown house, which with its narrow and 
elongated rooms and brownstone front seemed to be an old home of 
some well-to-do New York family. Its venerable and courteous sec- 
retary was on duty, almost a solitary worker, it would seem, con- 
serving the books and periodicals that came to hand, and guiding to 
their use the rather rare inquirer who broke the solitude. A modest 
bulletin was published five times a year and occasional lectures were 
offered to the public. 

The elementary textbooks of previous years abounded in definitions 
and in the routine of place geography but dealt little with the causal 
relations and the great network of facts and principles in which men 
are bound to the earth and to each other. The first textbook of 
physical geography which fully recognized the modern viewpoints 
of physiography was to appear in the following decade. 

Very little instruction in geography as such was given in American 
colleges and universities. Harvard and Princeton had offered * 
courses in geography before 1860, Wisconsin, Cornell, and Yale Uni- 
versities introduced the subject in a limited way about 10 years later, 
but it gained no real place in the university consciousness. In 1900 
only 12 of our higher schools were teaching geography, and this was 
mainly of the physical sort, and under the wing of geology. 


1 Geography in American and European Universities, R. H. Whitbeck, Jour. Geag., 
XVIII, 129-141, April, 1919. 


487 


488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The mapping of the national domain in an adequate and detailed 
manner was well started, but less than 360,000 square miles had then 
been covered by surveys for this purpose. New York had then con- 
toured maps covering little more than 1,000 miles of surface, and the 
great States of Illinois and Wisconsin were, as regards maps, in a 
backward condition. 

The conditions as thus rehearsed do not mean that there were no 
advances in American geography prior to the year 1890. In the realm 
of regional knowledge, the geological and natural history surveys of 
New York and other States had been long assembling geographic 
data of many kinds. Ten years before this date the fugitive and 
fragmentary organizations for the study of our national domain had 
been succeeded by the United States Geological Survey. In that 
Survey, Powell, Gilbert, Dutton, and others laid broad and deep the 
foundations of American physiography. 

For a period of 20 years, under the directorship of Maj. J. W. 
Powell and Dr. Charles D. Walcott, the annual reports of the Sur- 
vey included a series of scientific essays, which were geographical 
as well as geological in their scope—extended papers written in non- 
technical style, papers which may be regarded as classics of earth 
science. Among these essays were the following: Dutton’s Hawaiian 
Volcanoes and the Charleston Earthquake; Gilbert’s Topographic 
Features of Lake Shores; Chamberlin’s Artesian Wells, Terminal 
Moraine of the Second Glacial Epoch, and other glacial papers; 
Russell’s Glaciers of the United States; Shaler’s Essays on Seacoast 
Swamps, Harbors, Fresh-water Morasses and Soils, and his regional 
accounts of Mount Desert, Cape Ann, Cape Cod, and Martha’s 
Vineyard. 

There was also growing, 30 and 20 years ago, an important geo- 
graphic literature in hydrography and irrigation as embodied in 
various publications of the Geological Survey. 

A review of the field at the present time shows marked progress 
along several lines. In the early nineties the famous report of the 
Committee of Ten to the National Educational Association marked 
a new era in secondary and elementary geography. The subcom- 
mittee for geography contained some of our most eminent students 
of earth science, and a group of texts embodying their recommenda- 
tions soon found entrance into the schools. The result was an over- 
emphasis upon physical geography, from which in recent years there 
has been a reaction, but the impetus given to rational geography was 
nevertheless of great value. Interest in human and relational geog- 
raphy was awakened, and new texts were prepared for geography 
in the grades. These texts have recognized both physical and 
human and have developed in forms suitable to the youthful mind 
the relations of men to land forms, climate, soils, and all natural 


GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION—BRIGHAM. 489 


resources, as well as the relations of human groups to each other. 
Thus, geography has to a considerable extent become known as a 
social study, though it may be surmised that those who put most 
emphasis upon this aspect of it are those who have the least appre- 
ciation of physical geography and of the great field of geographic 
influence and human responses. 

Geography now has aeconstantly enlarging place in our universi- 
ties and colleges. In the year 1910-11, taking 24 American universi- 
ties, the enrollment of students in geographic courses was 3,980. In 
the year 1916-17 the number had risen to 9,807, the University of 
Pennsylvania having over 2,000 and the University of Wisconsin 
more than 1,000. In the same academic year the courses offered in 
single universities ranged from 1 to 19. The latter number of geo- 
graphic courses was offered by the University of Chicago, Columbia 
offering 16, Wisconsin 15, Nebraska 15, Harvard 14, California 11, 
and Pennsylvania and Yale each 10. At least 9 of the higher institu- 
tions in the State of New York are now regularly offering a more 
or less extended outfit of courses in geography. 

More than 30 phases or regions are represented in the titles of the 
courses offered. Among these are physical, commercial, climatic, 
mathematical, cartographic, agricultural, political, educational, and 
conservational phases, geographic influence, and the general princi- 
ples of the subject. In addition there are courses upon the United 
States, upon single States, upon several of the continents and upon 
the oceans. One course is offered in the great and fascinating field 
of urban geography. Advanced degrees in geography have been 
given by the following universities: California, Chicago, Columbia, 
Harvard, Cornell, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Princeton, 
Wisconsin, and Yale. Other schools that offer somewhat extended 
opportunities in geography are Minnesota, Michigan, Washington 
(State), Wellesley, Oberlin, Iowa, Illinois, and Colgate. 

First in order of time and most widespread in university instruc- 
tion to-day is the physiographic content of geography. There is 
now, however, an important growth on the side of commercial 
geography. This phase, not long ago, and still in some minds, re- 
garded as on a level with bookkeeping and typewriting in the 
shorter and more elementary courses of business schools, has for 
some years been coming into secondary schools as a rational subject 
and a substantial discipline. It is now taking its place as an ad- 
vanced subject in colleges and universities, and is an important part 
of the curriculum in schools of business administration, as in Har- 
vard, Cohumbia, and Pennsylvania. 

Geographic societies have had much to do with recent advances 
in geography. The National Geographic Society, from its small 
beginnings a third of a century ago, has grown to vast size and com- 


490 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


manding influence. With its membership far beyond a half mil- 
lion, its large funds and its brilliantly illustrated magazine, it brings 
geographic information to the attention of perhaps some millions 
of people each year. In addition it has subsidized and directed ex- 
ploratory research in several parts of the world, including Alaska, 
South America, and the Polar regions. 

In the period named the American Geographical Society has 
twice removed to new homes to fit its expanding work. Its library 
has been rapidly built up, its map collection enlarged, and its pub- 
lications extended and enriched. It has become a center of geo- 
eraphic influence for the Western Hemisphere and has adopted 
elaborate plans for its future work. On a less extended scale similar 
progress has been made by the geographic societies of Philadelphia 
and Chicago. 

In 1904 the Association of American Geographers formally began 
its work with a program of papers given at its meeting in Phila- 
delphia. Here was founded, it is believed, the only geographic 
society in the world which adheres to standards of expert member- 
ship. Its objects have combined research and educational advance, 
and much of the new interest in geographic subjects, in the whole 
range of geographic education, is due either directly or indirectly to 
its activities. 

The membership of this association is little more than 100, but it 
includes most of the professional geographers of America, their affili- 
ations in various degrees relating them to the geographic aspects of 
geology, the biological sciences, climatology, and agriculture on the 
one hand, and to history, economics, sociology, and statistical studies 
on the other. 

Out of this association has developed, since 1914, the National 
Council of Geography Teachers, which has now organized State 
councils in a majority of the States and is an effective force in pro- 
moting geographic advancement in the elementary and secondary 
schools of the entire country. 

Coordinated with the National Council is the publication known 
as the Journal of Geography. This periodical, founded by Prof. 
Richard E. Dodge at Columbia University, in 1897, and taken over at 
a later period by Prof. R. H. Whitbeck, of the University of Wiscon- 
sin, has recently been published by the American Geographical 
Society of New York under the editorship of Director Isaiah Bow- 
man. For several years it has been affliliated with the National 
Council, and it is soon to become their specific organ under the 
direction of Prof. George J. Miller, of Mankato, Minn., the secre- 
tary of the council. For 23 years this journal has been a powerful 
force in American geographic teaching. 


GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION—BRIGHAM. 491 


Thus by gradual processes have come into being effective and 
powerful means for promoting geography in this country and rais- 
ing it to the level of efficiency which it has reached in some of the 
countries of Europe. We have the Geological Survey, the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, and other or- 
ganizations of Government supplying day by day and year by year 
vast. stores of geographic information. We have several mature 
societies engaged in research and in reaching intelligent readers and 
citizens everywhere. We have growing interest and effective agen- 
cies at work in elementary education, and it may at last be said 
that the need of geography is now so fully realized in our universi- 
ties that the demand for qualified teachers exceeds the supply. 

Thus forward movements in geographic education have been in 
progress for many years. But none could have foreseen the wide- 
spread and profound awakening to geographic facts and principles 
that was to come with the recent War of Nations. 

“Tf we glance at each of the great continents of the globe we see 
how truly the war is called a World War. Of Europe’s approxi- 
mately 4,000,000 square miles of territory, seven-eighths was di- 
rectly involved in the conflict. For Africa the fraction is larger, 
32 out of 33 parts having been in belligerency. Asia, with her 
17,000,000 square miles, shows twenty-four twenty-fifths of her terri- 
tory involved in the conflict, while Australia was completely in the 
throes of war. Turning to North America, we shall find that four- 
fifths of her area of nearly 10,000,000 square miles is occupied by 
two of the great countries that. were in the struggle. Only about 
one-half of South America remained nominally neutral. Summing 
it all up, of the 52,000,000 square miles and more of territory mak- 
ing up the land of the entire globe, exclusive of Antarctica, more than 
45,000,000 square miles belong to the belligerent nations, and the 
remaining few million were more or less profoundly affected. 

“The extent of the war and of world changes may be seen if we 
glance at the map of Africa. If Germany had won, she would have 
taken possession of the Belgian Congo and of adjacent British and 
French colonies on the south and north, making a solid block of 
German sovereignty across equatorial Africa from the Atlantic to 
the Indian Ocean. What the extent of her aggressions in North 
Africa from Gibraltar to Suez would have been we can not say, but 
that it would have been large there can be no doubt. As it is, how- 
ever, Germany is excluded from Africa, and both British and French 
possessions are enormously enlarged. Furthermore, the great ob- 
stacle has been removed to the construction of the Cape-to-Cairo 
Railway. That obstacle was a thousand miles of German territory 
in East Africa. 


492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


“Germany’s profoundest aggressions and her largest hopes were 
involved in her project for a Middle Europe. This meant, to begin 
with, the actual subjugation of seaports in southern England, the 
destruction of France as an industrial nation by the acquisition of 
her supply of coal and iron in the north and of every industry on 
her Belgian border, the subjugation of Belgium, the ultimate over- 
running of Holland, and the free use of the great corridor route 
down the Danube through Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey 
to Constantinople, Syria, and the Persian Gulf. It meant that the 
entire Old World, the great land mass of three continents, was to be 
bisected in its very vitals. It meant ultimately the destruction of the 
British Empire and the throttling of India, which would be left in a 
state of anarchy or under the German heel. It meant ultimate ag- 
gressions in China, commercial or political sovereignty of South 
America, and, in the not distant future, German vengeance upon 
North America.” ? 

Geographic conditions have in all ages influenced the conduct of 
war and controlled strategic plans and tactical operations. Never 
before, however, has a great number of geographical and geological 
experts attended upon armies at the front or supplied in such ample 
measure the data for determining the outlines of countries and the 
terms of peace. On every front, English, French, American, Ger- 
man, and others, students of earth science were pitted against each 
other in studying natural resources and supplies, lines of communi- 
cation, drainage, the location of divides, the forms of valleys and 
escarpments, the fluctuation of streams, the soil, subsoil, and bed- 
rock, the position of water table, climatological conditions, etc.? 

Military geography, it may be said, is of interest to specialists in 
war, but the changes in political geography and economic relations 
following upon the war have made this branch of knowledge vital to 
every citizen of the world. 

The war has given geography a fresh and unwonted interest in 
America, because we have gained a new sense of the significance and 
permanence of international relations. This is true, whatever forms 
these relations assume, whether of expanded trade, courts of arbitra- 
tion, or any kind of association to promote peace and justice. The 
principle involved has been elsewhere set forth by the writer.* 

“The war has vividly exhibited the financial interdependence 
of all nations. American consuls in foreign cities have for years 
protested against the failure to provide American banking and 

2 Geography and the War, by the present writer, Jour. Geog., XIX, 91-92, March, 1920. 

8 See outline of address by Col. Alfred H. Brooks, Sc. D., Proc. Educ. Congress, Dept. 
Pub. Instruction, Commonwealth of Penn., Harrisburg, 1920, pp. 540-547. Also by the 
same author, ‘‘The Use of Geology on the Western Front,’ Professional Paper 128—D, 


pp. 85-124, in Shorter Contributions to General Geology, U. S. Geol. Surv., 1920. 
4 Geography after the War. Educational Rey., vol. 57, p. 284, April, 1919. 


GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION—BRIGHAM, 493 


credit facilities in regions where trade was desired and they have 
decried the American sloth which did not learn foreign languages 
and acquaint itself with alien needs and tastes. The war has started 
a new era in American relations to the rest of the world. Our 
money, our food, our technical skill, and our manufactured prod- 
ucts will be wanted everywhere. The American traveler will no 
longer look longingly but in vain to find the American flag in ports 
across the seas. A world league, if it is to be and whatever it may 
be, will involve relations of communication and transportation, of 
production and manufacture, and of markets and economic depend- 
ence. The character of populations, their distribution and move. 
ments, mean a world of close and neighborly fellowship, the only 
alternative to friction and bloodshed. Geography offers much of the 
knowledge and will soften prejudice, reveal and avert our difficul- 
ties, and direct our progress.” 

In the National Research Council geography now has its ap- 
pointed representatives organized in affiliation with the geological 
representatives of earth science. We have already noted the fact 
that the National Geographic Society has supported field research 
in several important fields. Within a few months the American 
Geographical Society has made a significant departure from previous 
policy in the decision to adopt henceforth as its chief work the 
study of Latin America. Upon the model of the Royal Geographical 
Society in taking Africa, for example, as a special field, it is deemed 
worthy and appropriate for the senior geographical society of 
America to devote its money and its expert knowledge to the south- 
ern lands of the Western Hemisphere. 

As the passage just cited intimates, geographic knowledge has be- 
come a new factor in the conduct of business. Conditions of produc- 
tion and manufacture, of transportation, market and sale, the world 
over, require for their balancing, both intensive and extensive famil- 
iarity with the facts and principles of geography, and in every phase 
of geography, physical and human. Here is a body of knowledge 
that is not supplied by history, or economics, or by any branch of 
physical science. Geography in its program has added the higher 
to the lower realms of education and must attempt a comprehensive 
study of earth and man, a problem vast and baffling and at the same 
time mandatory and inspiring. 

Apparently as a result of the patent efficiency of geographers in 
the Shipping Board, the War Trade Board, and other Government 
organizations, it is now not uncommon for large concerns to employ 
geographical experts to solve the problems and answer the difficult 
questions involved in world trade. Resources, climate, distances. 
routes, racial traits, and local tastes are all here involved. 


494 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


It is therefore apparent that not only in the schools but in the field 
of business as well, geography is now recognized as belonging in the 
field of research. It has outlived the stubborn prejudice that there 
was nothing in it beyond a purely elementary discipline. 

As geography is enriched with new and rational material, geo- 
graphical discovery is taking on a new meaning. Much that is even 
now on the map with a fair degree of accuracy must be rediscovered 
and so interpreted as to lead to real knowledge of it and the highest 
uses of it. 

While some ancients, notably Strabo, had penetrating notions as 
to the origin and meaning of features of physical geography, we are 
most interested to know now how far Herodotus, for example, and 
Eratosthenes and Strabo and Ptolemy knew the world of their time 
in Europe, Asia, and Africa. So in the era of modern explorations 
from Prince Henry to Columbus, Magellan, Capt. Cook, Livingston, 
Richthofen, Lewis and Clarke, Peary, Scott, and Amundsen—they 
taught us in the sphere of quantity—it was expansive geography in 
large part, with quality and substance as incidental elements. Now 
we seek intensive geography; quality is the main thing, and relations 
are paramount. We interrogate relief, climate, vegetation, animal 
life, fruits, grains, minerals, and soils as they are used by man or 
might be used by man. 

We seek for causes and effects; in other words, we demand to know 
what the geographic influences are, both for the intellectual satisfac- 
tion of knowing and for the concrete purpose of conforming life to 
conditions with the least waste and the most profit. 

Related to this new aspect of discovery and study of regions is a 
new and serious intellectual equipment for travel. Most men have 
traveled very much as one goes 20 miles to market, or as a child wan- 
ders in the field on a vacation day. The rather aimless pastime of 
chasing butterflies, gathering chestnuts, or picking wild berries is 
well, but the mature traveler must now do more. He must take much 
with him, that he may bring back more. The “ White Cattle” and 
the “ Dog’s Palace” may suffice the new rich to have seen on the 
plains of the Po and in Venice, but the real traveler will absorb and 
bring back Italy as a unit of environment, shaping a human group 
in its ways and works for two or three millenniums. 
~ Such work will not of necessity be done formally or pedantically, 
or be shaped by dry rule, but by a trained geographic vision which 
knows mountain and plain, climate and soils, products and people, 
a spirit that asks and in some measure sees why things are as 
they are. 

Some measure of this intensive and causal knowledge of nations 
and of the world is needed by all and is highly important to all 
public teachers and to all who are, or who aspire to become states- 


GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION—BRIGHAM. 495 


men. Not a few costly errors have been made during recent settle- 
ments and in the wars and diplomacy of centuries because public 
men were ignorant of geography. 

Those who are to be statesmen can not, in general, be selected 
while young and trained for their careers. At least in a democracy, 
public officials may come from any class and any home. Statesmen 
will in the long run be made out of the material in our schools and 
their course will in turn be shaped by public opinion. If the public 
is ignorant. of the world, their action will be haphazard, based on 
ignorance and on desire for party advantage. We are facing 
economic readjustments which have to do with the resources, the 
transportation, the tastes, and the industrial conditions of every 
country in the world. We would not debar our diplomats from 
training in politics or from the experience and graces of the drawing 
room, but we would give them knowledge and a consequent sense of 
being at home in the lands to which they are accredited. Such train- 
ing is to a large degree in the sphere of geographic education. 

In brief summary we may say that down to the year 1850 geo- 
graphic textbooks in America were of the gazeteer type, valuable 
as stores of information but having small value in education. Dur- 
ing the following 40 years the atlas type of geography prevailed, 
placing thus a new value upon the use of maps, and locational geo- 
graphy was in the forefront and marked by excess of emphasis. The 
period, however, shared in the impulse that came with the emergence 
of the doctrine of evolution and was enriched by the anthropo- 
geographic studies of the Germans and the French and by the rise 
of scientific physiography in America. Rapid progress, however, as 
_ shown in geographic education and geographic research, goes back 
in the main through the 30-year period to which reference has been 
made. 

The next 30 years will go far to achieve the growth and realize the 
aims that will round out a century since gazeteer geography held the 
field. Geography will, we believe, become a cardinal theme in ele- 
mentary and secondary teaching, that our youth may be fitted to 
live in a world of nature, of resources, of races and nations. There 
is, perhaps, no other subject. which so well pictures what that world is 
and so effectively links together and utilizes the combined harvest of 
the natural and the social sciences. 

Out of such perfected geographic training will come not only 
effective intelligence for citizenship but the training of experts for 
commercial undertakings, for military necessities, for consular and 
diplomatic work, and for the intensive study of new or little-known 
regions. 

Along with strong development in education from lowest to high- 
est will proceed the perfecting of our maps, those summaries of 


496 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


geographic education which may be made to express visually the 
relief, the resources, the industries, the distribution of people, and 
almost every phase of human activity in any and every part of the 
earth. 

So far as expression can set forth the facts and principles of man 
and the earth, the finished product of geography will more and more 
be found in thoroughly attractive and informing descriptions of 
regions. We have had, and must always have, various types of de- 
scription, the gazeteer, the guide book, the encyclopedia article, the 
popular notes of the unprofessional traveler, and the special or tech- 
nical report. All these, however, should contribute to and, in turn, 
be enriched by regional descriptions which are scientifically accurate, 
serious without being too technical, expressed in good literary form, 
and giving balanced, interesting, and useful knowledge for the man 
of business, diplomacy, or pleasure, who needs to know the particular 
region. Even travelers see but a small part of the world, they 
deal in samples and they must exhibit and exchange their wares in 
order that anyone may know the earth widely. 

The world’s stock of geographic knowledge has been gathered 
through multitudinous agencies through the centuries. Commerce, 
war, love cf adventure, thirst for knowledge, immigration to new 
lands for a fresh experiment in living—all have had their part. It 
remains for geographic education to order this mass of material, 
develop geographic principles, and help toward a better use of the 
earth and its gifts. 


PROGRESS IN NATIONAL LAND RECLAMATION IN THE 
UNITED STATES: 


By C. A. BISSELL, 
Fingineer, U. 8. Reclamation Service. 


[With 10 plates. ] 


The full importance of national irrigation can not be measured 
in dollars and cents. In the building of new Commonwealths in the 
arid West the Government is utilizing largely its own undeveloped 
resources. It is creating opportunities for its citizens to establish 
themselves in permanent homes in which patriotism, loyalty, and 
civic pride are bred and fostered. The primary purpose of the 
Reclamation Act was to create homes, and this purpose has been ful- 
filled richly and abundantly. Viewed from this standpoint, no one 
can deny that national reclamation has amply justified all its expo- 
nents declared for it. 

Since 1902 the Reclamation Service has constructed the irrigation 
system to supply completely 1,780,000 acres of land. Also, the 
capacious storage reservoirs of the Government are furnishing a 
supplemental supply of stored water to 1,000,000 additional acres 
in other projects, or a grand total of 2,780,000 acres. 

On the Government project lands are 40,000 families in independ- 
ent homes. The population in cities, towns, and villages in these 
Government projects has been increased by an equal number of 
families. That is to say, on the 1,780,000 acres reclaimed there are 
now profitably employed and satisfactorily housed 400,000 people. 
The arguments for increasing and making permanent the Nation’s 
virility, prosperity, and growth by creating more homes of this kind 
were never more forcible and unanswerable than just now. Ameri- 
can people can not rightly claim to have measured up to their 
opportunity until the deserts of the West and the unused agricul- 
tural lands of the balance of the Nation have been replaced by vistas 
of prosperous farmsteads. 

1 This article is in continuation of papers printed in the Smithsonian reports for 1901, 


pp. 407 to 423; 1903, pp. 827 to 841; 1904, pp. 3723 to 3813; 1906, pp. 469 to 492; 1907, 
pp. 331 to 345; 1910, pp. 169 to 198; 1915, pp. 467 to 488, all of which are out of print, 


497 


498 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


Measured by the yardstick of the financier—the dollar—the results 
of the Reclamation Service activities are interesting. 

As a creator of wealth, its service to the Nation and the State has 
been as great as in its principal task of home making. Out of the 
uninhabited and almost worthless desert it has carved an empire of 
nearly 2,000,000 acres intensively cultivated, and producing crops 
whose annual average gross returns per acre are about double those 
for the rest of the country. 

Since the first Government ditch began turning its waters upon 
the land, in 1905, the crops produced on the reclaimed lands have 
had a total value of more than $250,000,000. The present annual 
crop returns are now nearly $90,000,000, not including the value of 
crops grown on the million acres outside of projects which are sup- 
plied with stored water. 

The increase in land values has been enormous. In 1902, the 
beginning of Government irrigation, the average value of the desert 
lands in the projects did not exceed $10 per acre. The total value, 
therefore, of the 1,780,000 acres in Government projects did not 
exceed $17,800,000. 

Government irrigation has increased the value of the project lands 
$200 per acre, or a total of $356,000,000. It has increased the value 
of the 1,000,000 acres in other projects by $100 per acre, or $100,000,- 
000. The increase in the value of land in the cities, towns, and 

villages within projects is easily $100,000,000, or a total increase in 
land values of $556,000,000, due to this work. 

In connection with the above summary no consideration has been 
given to 1,188,000 acres of land included in Government projects 
which will be irrigated when the engineering works are completed, 
the present market price of which has increased at least $50 per acre 
by reason of this fact. 

The increase in the price received for State lands included in the 
projects and now mostly disposed of was at least $3,000,000 of direct 
revenue derived by the States. 

Dividing the acreage reclaimed—1,/80,000—into the net cost of 
the works of $122,645,000, we have a cost of approximately $69 per 
acre for the lands in reclamation projects to which the Government 
can now deliver water. This cost, however, includes the cost of 
serving stored water to about 1,000,000 acres of land under the 
Warren Act. If these lands be included, the average expenditure 
per acre benefited is less than $45 per acre, and this cost includes 
large storage works and canals useful for future reclamation on 
projects now being completed, the utilization of which will further 
reduce these fea of cost. 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 499 
ADVANTAGES OF IRRIGATION FARMING. 


Agriculture in the arid region where irrigation is feasible has 
several important advantages over that in the humid region. The 
soils of the arid region by the nature of the case have generally not 
been leached of their mineral plant foods as have those in the humid 
region, and they are therefore much richer in this respect on the 
average and are seldom or never acid, as are soils in the humid 
region. This quality has the disadvantage at times of leaving the 
arid lands charged with hurtful alkalis, which seldom remain in 
the soil of the humid region on account of their solubility, but 
where the injurious salts do not predominate the general principle 
of abundance of mineral plant food obtains and constitutes a distinct 
advantage over the soils of humid regions. 

There is much advantage in being able to apply water to growing 
crops at just the time and in just the quantity needed and to withhold 
it at will. Where the water supply is ample this constitutes a very 
important advantage in arid regions. 

Another striking advantage is the preponderance of clear days in 
an arid region, where the absence of rainy and cloudy weather affords 
a much larger percentage of sunshine than is found in humid re- 
gions. As sunlight is one of the most important essentials of healthy 
plant growth, this advantage is quite important. 

Resulting from these advantages, it appears that the average gross 
product of agricultural crops on reclamation projects is just about 
double the average yield from nonirrigated lands in the country at 
large. The larger product obtainable per acre from irrigated lands 
justifies and permits a more careful and intensive cultivation, which 
with a favorable climate and controllable water supply, yields more 
certain results than the same care in the humid region. 

This means that as much product can be obtained from a 40-acre 
tract under irrigation as from the average 80-acre tract in the humid 
region. This, of course, requires more labor per acre, but much less 
labor in proportion to product. It permits and encourages intensive 
cultivation and smaller holdings and consequent greater centraliza- 
tion of population. The result is that the isolation of country life is 
to a large extent eliminated, as the irrigating farmer will have fully 
twice as many neighbors within a given radius as his prototype in 
the humid region. The social advantages thus obtained react upon 
the character of the people and of the communities and other condi- 
tions characteristic of irrigated regions have a similar effect. 

Cooperation with his neighbors is forced upon the irrigator because 
it is usually impracticable for him to irrigate his land without such 
cooperation, the feasible irrigation projects usually being in tracts 
of many thousands of acres accommodating thousands of families 


500 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


and giving rise to towns, villages, and characteristic civilizations of 
their own. This condition stimulates the civic conscience and atten- 
tion to public affairs of common interest, so that the local govern- 
ments that grow up under such conditions are usually of a superior 
order and controlled by a superior intelligence on the part of the 
population living thereunder. 


ARE PROJECT SETTLERS PERMANENT? 


In order to determine to what degree settlement on reclamation 
projects is permanent, an investigation was made in 1919 of a num- 
ber of representative projects: 

Five of the projects selected for investigation, namely, Huntley, 
Minidoka, North Platte, Shoshone, and Umatilla, were thought to 
have experienced unusually trying conditions for the settlers, and 
one—Boise—was thought to have been quite favorable. Letters were 
sent to the project managers of these six projects asking the number 
of original settlers still in possession and the number of transfers 
made by other settlers, together with any proper explanations. 

Although the figures are probably not infallible, they are as nearly 
correct as possible. The margin of error is doubtless small in any 
case. The chance for greatest variation is in the number given for 
total farm units, because these are constantly changing and subdi- 
viding. 

One of the projects—Minidoka—was also checked up by consult- 
ing the tract books in the General Land Office in Washington. 

Following is a tabulation from the reports received : 


Settlers still 
in posses- 
Total _|sion or whO| poy cent of Total |Number of 
Project. number of | have satis- total number of| settlers per 
farm units.| fied home- x settlers. | farm unit. 
stead re- 
quirements. 
IBxaytstey, dts ElaVoy SAR ees oe ee co seboaee se 1,107 987 89.1 1, 273 1.14 
Huntley, Montana... 2-2-2 252.2 - 2-222. 589 383 65. 0 839 1. 42 
Minidoka idaho. {iso uee tr oo atk ecle 1, 609 299 55. 8 2,709 1. 68 
North Platte, Nebraska-Wyoming........- 1,337 723 54.0 2,155 1.61 
Shoshone, Wyoming.....-.-.-------------- 609 405 66.5 902 1. 48 
Wimatilla) Oreroneeee- ste anes ee eae eee 196 136 69.3 289 1.47 
Notal. MscGeiacee sas cease eae 5, 447 3, 533 65. 2 8, 167 1. 49 


A difference will be noted between the total number of farm units 
for each project and the total number as listed in the annual reports 
of the Reclamation Service. The figures given above exclude farms 
on private and State land inside the projects and farm units which 
have not been entered upon, except in the case of North Platte, which 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 501 


are divided as follows: Public-land units, 982; private-land units, 
308; State-land units, 47.. The numbers are taken from special re- 
Sere of the project managers and are therefore as recent and as 
nearly accurate’ as possible. | 

_ From the figures quoted, it is computed that the average number 
of settlers to'a farm unit on the Boise project, where conditions were 
favorable, was 1.14, or slightly more than one—truly a remarkable 
showing when it is considered that farms in general often go 
through many changes in ownership; and only 1.68 on the Minidoka 
project, where conditions were adverse. 

Opponents to homestead and reclamation acts have argued that 
many settlers take up their farms merely for speculation. Although 
no effort has been made to learn the changes on reclamation proj- 
ects after title had been obtained, results indicate slight changes dur- 
ing the time of proving up. 

Before the end of the period required for residence, settlers may 
relinquish their right and for money consideration pass on the farm 
unit. This can safely be done only when the relinquishment paper is 
filed simultaneously with another entry. Any such transactions may 
come under the notice of the project office if the settlers are known 
personally... Giving up an entry does not by any means indicate 
that the entryman has failed to make good on his farm. It may 
show quite the contrary—that he has succeeded so well he is able to 
sell out his improved farm for a good figure. This kind of specu- 
lation can hardly be avoided. 

The first few years of the Reclamation Service were the most 
severe for the project settlers. Water was not available at this time, 
and under the law settlers could not be prevented from taking up 
land which might not receive water for years. Having seen how 
often it worked hardship for settlers to struggle along until water 
was ready, the service secured the passage of a law which prohib- 
ited the entering of farm units until the irrigating system is in op- 
eration, resulting unquestionably in even greater permanence of set- 
tlers on projects opened under these conditions. 

The investigation has shown conclusively in connection with Fed- 
eral projects that. there is. not the slightest basis for the statement 
so often and so loosely made that “throughout the newer parts of 
America at least three settlers in succession attempt to develop a 
farm before one succeeds.” 


IRRIGATION PROGRESS. 


During the past year the operation of the Government under the 
various reclamation laws has continued to develop the resources of 
the projects undértaken, as shows by the eradual | increase in the 

12573°—21—_33 | 


502 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


area for which the service can supply water, the increase in areas 
actually irrigated and cropped, and the increase in the value of crop 
produced. This progressive increase is shown in the following table, 
which gives statistics only for those areas covered by crop census, 
excluding practically all those additional areas which are served from 
the works of the Reclamation Service under Warren Act contracts 
and from which. crop statistics were not obtainable. It is estimated 
that, including these areas, the crop value in 1919 amounted to 
$150,000,000 or over. 


Development of Government irrigation project. 


Year Irrigable | Irrigated | Cropped Crop 
; acreage. acreage. acreage. value. 
1 ease ah no a iy ok ie Se ee a ae Cae ee 1, 181, 362 694, 142 637,227 | $15, 676, 411 
1 SR Ore me EE er some eat te emp eyed Pe) NER HR JA ana h. Doa 1, 240, 875 761, 271 703,424 | 16,475,517 
TONS 7s. ey se Pee ¢ SEER IAL EOE. SST 1, 330, 222 814, 906 757,613 | 18, 164, 452 
TOIG> = Se. a: Sp Pies aie ae Sine ae eee EES eta ae a 1, 405, 452 922, 821 858,291 | 32,815, 972 
BO Tere SAL ee pees BSc aI. Peed eR Me 1,502,468 | 1,026, 663 966, 784 | 56, 462, 313 
Ue ee EE aera Seat eet ram eden Heri pe Riri 5 1,601,934 | 1,119,566} 1,051,193 | 66,821,396 | 


IMs ote eo par get hein ee. ee, 1, 636,159 | 1,187,255| 1,113,469 | 88,974, 137 


The statistics given in the above table do not, however, tell the 
whole story. The easy terms of repayment granted by the Govern- 
ment and the high prices received for their products have combined 
with the other favorable conditions and with the industry of the 
people to produce a condition of prosperity beyond the indications 
of the bare statistics. 

No new projects have been undertaken within the past year, as 
there have been no funds available for this purpose. The gradual 
decline in the receipts from the sales of public lands, due largely 
to the wholesale disposal of these lands under the operation of the 
640-acre homestead act, has naturally greatly restricted the opera- 
tions under the reclamation act. The small payments provided by 
law from the irrigated lands have kept the returns from the con- 
structed projects to a low point. It is now necessary, under the 
provisions of existing law, to set aside $1,000,000 per annum from 
these receipts to repay the advances to the reclamation fund which 
were provided by the act of 1910, known as the “bond loan.” It has 
been possible on this account only slightly to extend the irrigated 
area by some extension of canal systems and to take care of water- 
logged conditions as they have arisen on some of the projects. 


CONSTRUCTION RESULTS. 


In spite of the adverse labor conditions and the absence of oppor- 
tunity for the undertaking of new projects, it is noteworthy that 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 503 


during the fiscal year 1919 the amount of excavation accomplished 
by the Reclamation Service totaled nearly 14,000,000 cubic yards, 
and 575 miles of canals and drains were constructed. Reservoir 
capacity on all projects totals 9,400,000 acre-feet. The following 
table gives a brief summary of the construction work accomplished 
by the Reclamation Service in the 17 years of its existence: 


Summary of construction resulis to June 30, 1919. 


Item. Unit: pee te 
STRUCTURES. 

(SE IRG sootec tone coset so Ghsenesabons 26 S- Scone SSeS: Po ose case ganenences Miles...-.....- 10, 834 
SR GIE 8 = asp gnaSene seons sesegseoese -adteebsbse sees cose se saeo te soen (G55 5e On neeeaer 27 
IDNEOS Gir | UNGER SR Gand S Sona: oat cea sade Gee Spee OH aMbc See sees See cd= eee eas dOls2.a2 8 97 
irnipation aud tain pipe eo = sere ssa eee eee =~ sa or eee amine a soi ec Clingsdiend 500 
IM LTE a ao eae oor cse Bo sede ssGe so sec~ sonEe Samo Ace a Sceeeert esa see alk amen Osco es 120 
Canallnine Concrete. oo see eee ae sesame ae hae eis eine ae ae [eam Gorse s.e 308 
RSs eee ee oe Be oo abe sscoscouce + -sbeeteeae oodeseso sor ee see | Oscnee cee 970 
AMR GGUS fees eee e 85  ace eeesoeneeMedS: jasder eal caees Os ceanees - 3, 126 
JME RESIGN TIRS\ Ses OS SOE NS ogee o hoe cee ee eee Sole ae dOseeeeree 615 
Canal structures: 

ORB ition si reossabyne nels sobs kobe sbeokt asso eee gee sos SoM Ce Be ei assed seein 32, 722 

NOEL ie spaecsee acer, at ie a a i Ee Eee eee eeeiet 4 ee ocaeecee eae 64, 423 
ISG oo a Seabee MeO ake eee Es Sok eth oh oe ei aio ego poe 7, 000 
(CHITIN coe Se aces aoe kee wae ee see gecco445 sor eet oansoes Ia0cm 2 sCooce Sel Se eaddoce Germans. 9,044 
TPerel GUIs Slwnd Se oe Be See oie ton ble ao Sonous “= 1 Soon rg GUboc de scloscaeecuille-ede faces nods 1,374 

MATERIALS HANDI ED. 

Excavation: 

IDET ATES ES aie SE oie Se RL eiot eer ae Soa  ate Uay SPeee Sa Cubic yards... 154, 473, 487 

indurated materials os: 05 Soeur et eeneatctelet oes poe Nee cea cls ube te eds doled 9, 913, 065 

Led eS be aate Seae bet Sane So eP eR Dade See adeer on OSEIOe megane c= Sch a Pines Oss <5) nae 8, 409, 722 

Avail Berise. 2 anode de Seece Se gose oases dos sect Seas soe sen sebe ase ase| lee eee dO-no-seeee 172, 796, 274 

Volume placed in dams: 

WEG elin Paes Angee etere nas Doge snedede ~Senee ae oo MonnnareeBOemsoeee ose ee oles oseuee 2, 087, 991 

IDET al APSE cere seee Hee ap eGe7 eas Jedd e Se See He ee ob Sanncuer sare tee tl Gane Os20ccee ee 10, 220, 671 

igyoa cable rate taal) Aeros Be aac eoes Ser oc oneear adresse secre OneHores calla seus dOsssenee oe 1, 203, 386 

ANNIBl oso g2e s cceadnve seers as coansseogeotee tene dSuecoset cages zssend||:2505 Cha Aosdcior 18, 512, 048 

TBAT O25 0 ese ae RS te ee a SE MME EES oe ht Goeth ss 1, 892, 728 
TEP A ARS Aaa Pe See Sere Seas Selle peta iae ai mena Ps eines Aiea Soa 2 Square yards.. 819, 408 
RSUNICKEL Owes qa ee ae) = 2 eee Meese e sine oe ae aeieeee Meee ees: Cubie yards... 3, 023, 446 
(CHRIS Saaetppseee Bee eaee Sis SANE ROhAe s Gem MEN iy pers EIA ath eee Barrels....-.-- 2, 971, 330 


RECLAMATION PROJECT OPERATIONS. 


The Salt River project in Arizona is being operated by the local 
organization of water users under a contract by which the Secretary 
of the Interior on November 1, 1917, turned over the works and the 
income of the large power plants constructed in connection with the 
project. It is in a prosperous condition, and the income from power 


504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, absai!s 


a good deal more than pays the construction charges. The Govern- 
ment connection with this project is confined to occasional inspec- 
tion and supervision, as provided in the contract. The ground 


oue iom eee 


ip 
< PSAL Ray : N 5 : 
y BLE} A N é 2 DAR TA 
Lp O : : BISMARCK 


¢ 
Nad 
Fai 


Pale eant 
_ Burley Dope H 
oh : nD ox meeemaesians Ge 


ATHEIND, 
RESERVOIR” 


Ba j 
ies leas 


t LLEy 


aed OL, 
Ulie 
a” eee ae, 


onirose 


IMPERIAL 
VALLey & 


K 


Ze. {\ ‘ 
N Y 
a 
DEPARTMENT? OF THE INTERIOR (te 
1 UNITED, STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE =i v 
LOCATION OF PROJECTS ‘Ss 
Map No, 18444 


1 = Seale of miles’ 


1020) ere 


Fic. 1.—Location of projects, U. S. Reclamation Service. 


water is rising on this project and will require early attention in 
order to prevent injury to a considerable area of land. ‘This has been 
investigated: by the water users’ association, which is alive to the 
problem and will doubtless take necessary action. jou! 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. 


I. GRANITE REEF Dam, SALT RIVER PROJECT. 


2. LAGUNA DAM, YUMA PROJECT. 


PLATE I. 


*LOaPOUd AATIVA GNVYD ‘LNV1d DNIdWAd GNV IVNVO SNI7] HOI 


% ALV1d "l9SSIG—6 161 ‘Hodey uvluosyyWS 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. PLATE 3. 


|. HARVESTING THE ALMOND CROP, ORLAND PROJECT. 


2. IRRIGATED FARMS, UNCOMPAHGRE PROJECT. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. PLATE 4. 


I. NEW RANCH IN PEACH VALLEY, UNCOMPAHGRE PROJECT. 


2. OFFICE BUILDING AND POWER HOUSE, MINIDOKA PROJECT. 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 505 


On the Yuma project, Arizona-California, the Yuma’ Valley, 
which lies in Arizona, has been placed under public notice, but the 
payments have been contested by the water users’ association. The 
Yuma Valley is exceedingly prosperous, having a gross yield for 
the year 1919 of $184 per acre, exclusive of live-stock increase. 
A successful sale was held in December, 1919, of a portion of 
the lands on the Yuma Mesa, which will be irrigated under the provi- 
sions of a special act of Congress, with water pumped from the main 
canal south of the city of Yuma. A contract has been executed with 
the Imperial irrigation district to connect its system with Laguna 
Dam and provide ‘better security for its water supply. 

The Orland project in California is regarded as the first unit of a 
comprehensive project for the Felonies of the Sacramento Val- 
ley. It, however, stands alone as a self-supporting project, with an 
ample water supply from Stony Creek, a tributary of Sacramento 
River, and has been practically completed. Public notice on this 
project was issued in 1916, and all payments are made promptly 
when they fall due by the association asa whole. Thus all the an- 
noyance, expense, and risk of delinquency are voluntarily shouldered 
by the water users’ association, which has shown a commendable 
spirit of cooperation from the first. The project is prosperous and 
constantly growing in development. The only construction work in 
progress is a small amount of permanent canal lining, which was pro- 
vided for in the current public notice, and which is necessary for 
checking the seepage from the canals constructed in coarse material. 

The Grand Valley project in Colorado is delivering water to a 
‘portion of the land which has been opened to entry and occupied by 
settlers. The agricultural operations are gradually extending and 
results are encouraging. The physical conditions in this valley are 
difficult on account of the seamy shale which occurs on the canal 
system and which has required a large amount of maintenance and 
betterment work to render the canals tight. Aside from these diffi- 
culties the works are operating in a very satisfactory manner. 

The Uncompahgre project, Colorado, is being operated by the 
United States under contract with the water users’ association upon 
the payment of the cost of such operation by the association. The 
contract provides that the operation may be turned over to the water 
users’ association whenever they so elect, and this is being consum- 
mated. The existing contract provides for the operation at cost for 
a period of five years, at the end of which period the project is to be 
opened under public notice unless further extension is made by the 
Secretary of the Interior. At that time, according to the contract, 
the construction repayments will begin. The construction of the 
project is completed so far as the plans of the Government have been 
made, but the distribution systems, which remain in the hands of the 


506 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


irrigators, are very unsatisfactory and should be enlarged and im- 
proved. The cultivation of the lands is gradually extending and 
slow improvement is being made in the use of water, which is very 
wastefully applied to the lands. Efforts are being made to introduce 
the rotation system and to charge for water on an acre-foot basis, 
which will be necessary before early practice in the economy of water 
can be hoped for. The excessive application of water is manifested 
by a rising water table and the destruction of the fertility of some 
of the land. Agriculture in general is successful, and the settlers are 
prosperous. 

The Boise project in Idaho includes the Arrowrock and Deer Flat 
Reservoirs, which have been completed, and a canal system, which 
now delivers water to the main body of the project. Contemplated 
extensions will be made gradually to conform to better practices 
regarding the use of water which is sufficient for irrigating about 
40,000 additional acres of land if used with reasonable economy. 
Public notice was issued in 1917 announcing the charges on the com- 
pleted portion of the project, but the water users brought suit to 
escape a portion of the repayment, and this has been tried in the 
United States court. A preliminary opinion has been handed down 
by the court, which holds that the full cost of the project must be 
paid by the beneficiaries, but withholds decision upon several points 
of detail. 

In addition to the main project, the United States, under 11 special 
contracts, delivers storage water to about 150,000 acres of lands that 
are served by independent systems. The current year has been one 
of exceptional drouth, and it was preceded also by a very dry year. 
It is the general opinion, as expressed by the water users and the 
local press, that the benefits the past season from the storage works 
constructed by the Government have been greater than the total cost 
of those works in the increased product upon the lands served by 
stored water which would have been without water except for these 
works. The project as a whole is very productive and successful. 

The Minidoka project in Idaho as originally planned has been 
completed, but several extensions are possible and desirable. The 
project is in two portions—that which is served with irrigation water 
by gravity has been formed into an irrigation district which operates 
the canal system serving it under contract with the United States; 
the pumping unit on the south side of the river is operated by the 
United States. The results of irrigation in this region are very 
striking and exceptionally successful. 

The Huntley project in Montana is practically completed, and is 
one of the most successful and thickly settled projects of the service. 
Drainage work is in progress and some enlargement of a portion of 


Res a Mares 


Witenes eet ae 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. PLATE 5. 


|. PLACING CONCRETE LINING, SUN RIVER SLOPE CANAL, SUN RIVER PROJECT. 


2. WALEN DIVERSION DAM, NORTH PLATTE PROJECT. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. PLATE 6. 


2. WEIR AND OUTLET PORTAL, STRAWBERRY TUNNEL, STRAWBERRY VALLEY 
PROJECT. 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 507 


the delivery system is also being made. Construction payments 
upon the lands served are being regularly made. 

In the Milk River Valley, Mont., water is being delivered through 
a canal leading from St. Mary River, which diverts that river just 
below St. Mary Lake. By a treaty arrangement with Canada the 
waters of the St. Mary are divided on an agreed basis, and this water 
is being used very completely. The recent demand for irrigation 
water, on account of the excessive dryness of successive seasons, has 
been greater than ever before. The water is all used on a rental 
basis, partly through the works of the service and partly delivered 
to canal systems of private or cooperative companies. 

On the Sun River project, Montana, the original unit on the south 
side of Sun River is being operated as usual. On the north side of 
the river, where many of the settlers were attempting to secure title 
to their homesteads without the liability for irrigation water which 
is included in their filing papers, a series of three dry years in suc- 
cession has shown that dry farming is not profitable and has revived 
the demand for irrigation water. Difficulties with the canal sys- 
tems have been encountered on account of the unfavorable material 
with which they were constructed, but it is possible this year to de- 
liver water to about 25,000 acres, and a considerable portion of this 
is being served on a rental basis. 

The Lower Yellowstone project, in Montana and North Dakota, has 
been operated for years on a rental basis, with only a small fraction 
of the lands irrigated. The neighboring lands have been for years 
farmed without irrigation, and though the returns from dry farming 
have always been less than under irrigation, the temptation to avoid 
the expense of water service has been so great that the project has 
not yet been placed on a paying basis. A series of dry years, how- 
ever, has increased the demand for water, and steps have been taken 
to form an irrigation district and arrange for permanent water 
rights for the lands to be included. Appropriate laws have been 
passed by both States and the prospect is good for the success of the 
project. The demand for water of this project has been more than 
twice as great this year as in any previous year, and good crops are 
reported. 

The North Platte project, in Nebraska and Wyoming, is one of the 
largest as well as one of the most successful of the reclamation proj- 
ects. The Interstate unit, on the north side of the river, most of 
which is under public notice, is largely under cultivation, and im- 
provement is steadily extending. Drainage is being constructed and 
considerable areas are yet to be relieved. On the south side of the 
river the main or Fort Laramie Canal and its lateral system are 
under construction and water is being delivered under rental con- 


508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


tracts. This is the region of most rapid development’ of anything 
in the service. 

The Newlands (formerly epee: Carson) project, in Nevada, has 
been somewhat held back in past years on account of difficulties in the 
way of forming an irrigation district to provide funds for necessary 
drainage work. Recent State legislation has relieved these diffieul- 
ties and the irrigation district recently: formed has taken up the 
drainage ‘situation energetically. Another difficulty has been the 
lack of storage for the lands on the upper part of the system, but 
legal and other obstacles have been thrown in the way of a proper 
regulation of Lake Tahoe, the only available reservoir site of conse- 
quence which can serve this region. The main canals for using 
water have been built, but storage works are still necessary. Pend- 
ing their development, no further extension is feasible. 

The Carlsbad project in New Mexico is gradually increasing its 
cultivated area, and is in a prosperous condition. Some drainage is 
still to be accomplished, but the water supply is ample and results 
are satisfactory. 

The Rio Grande project in New Mexico and Texas is being operated 
on a rental basis. Nearly one-half of the land is in cultivation and is 
being served by storage water from the Elephant Butte Reservoir. 
The flat topography of the valley, the peculiar fineness of the soil, 
and the very wasteful use of water in the past have brought up the 
water table over most of the valley and much of the land has been 
injured. An extensive drainage system is being installed and is suc- 
cessful so far as constructed. Its prosecution, however, is greatly 
hampered by the lack of sufficient funds. The lateral system which 
has been operated for many years by the local association of irriga- 
tors is very inadequate and inefficient, and the water is wastefully 
used. At the instance of the water users the various works are being 
gradually turned over to the Government and are being rebuilt and 
put in shape for efficient service. This will to some extent remedy the 
threatening condition of the rising water table and is necessary for 
the success of the drainage system planned. The progress along this 
line has been successful so far, but not very extensive. 

The North Dakota pumping project, which has not been operated 
for several years owing to failure of the lands benefited to make pay- - 
ment therefor, has been formed into an irrigation district and a con- 
tract made with the Secretary of the Interior assuring its operation 
and the payment for the cost thereof. It was operated in 1919 with 
results that under the conditions existing may be considered very 
good. 

The Umatilla project in Oregon has always been bothered by drift- 
ing sand and in some restricted localities by an extremely coarse sub- 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 509 


soil which allows the rapid escape of irrigation water and the leach- 
ing of soil. These difficulties are being overcome to some extent, and 
progress in cultivation is steady and encouraging. Urgent requests 
have been made for the Government to enlarge the project by taking 
over some of the private canals which have insufficient water supply 
and constructing a reservoir to serve them. This can not be under- 
taken without additional funds. 

The Klamath project in Oregon and California is being gradually 
extended as the waters of Tule Lake recede owing to the diversion of 
the supply through the Government works. Drainage works are in 
progress and have been successful so far as constructed. The irri- 
gated land is productive and the settlers generally prosperous. 

The Belle Fourche project in South Dakota is growing in produc- 
tion and prosperity. In some localities the water table is rising and 
drainage works should be installed, but arrangements have not yet 
been made for the repayment of the cost. A small amount of the land 
under the feed canal and not served from the Owl Creek Reservoir 
suffers from water shortage in some years, and plans are under way 
for providing a small storage reservoir to serve these lands. 

On the Strawberry Valley project in Utah the principal work con- 
structed by the Government is a storage reservoir in Strawberry 
Valley on the headwaters of the Duchesne River and the diversion of 
its waters through a long tunnel to the westward slope of the 
Wasatch Range, where the water is diverted from the Spanish Fork 
River and an irrigation system constructed. This system is being 
operated by the irrigators under special contract, and payments of 
construction charges are being regularly made. In many instances 
canal systems already in existence are being operated by associations 
which have made arrangements for storage water from the Straw- 
berry Valley Reservoir and are operating their own canal systems. 
There are still some water rights in the Strawberry Reservoir for 
sale. 

Three extremely dry years—1917, 1918, and 1919—throughout a 
large portion of the West have broken all records for drought, and 
thousands of live stock and many private irrigation projects have 
suffered for lack of water. Dry farming has generally been a failure 
throughout these regions. 

The Reclamation Service experienced serious water shortage on 
one project—the Okanogan project in northern Washington—in 
1918, and while there was some shortage also in 1919 it was not so 
great. Pumping plants were installed at Salmon Lake and Duck 
Lake to supplement the storage reservoirs, which did not entirely 
fill. The additional pumping capacity and the enlargment of the 
reservoir hold-over capacity are the remedies being carried out. 


510 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The Yakima project in Washington includes a large system of 
storage reservoirs and two canal systems, known as the Sunnyside 
unit and the Tieton unit.. The project as a whole is very productive 
and prosperous, and strong pressure is being made to secure the con- 
struction of more storage, the extension of existing canal systems, 
and the construction of new canals from the Yakima River and its 
tributaries. The excellent results obtained show that this would be 
a wise development. The Yakima project as a whole is one of the 
foremost in general prosperity and in returning the cost of this 
construction. 

The Shoshone project in Wyoming is being gradually extended by 
additions to the canal and lateral systems on the north side of the 
Shoshone River. The drainage system, which has been largely com- 
pleted and has been very successful, is also being extended under 
contract with the water users in accordance with law. The lands 
are very productive and the project very prosperous. Preparations 
are being made for the construction of an additional unit on the 
south side of the Shoshone River, for which ample storage capacity 
has been provided in the Shoshone Reservoir. 

The value of the agricultural products exclusive of live stock pro- 
duced by the Government reclamation projects during the season of 
1919, amounting to nearly $89,000,000, has been over half of the net 
cost of construction of all of the projects during the last 17 years. 
On some of the projects the production has exceeded the total con- 
struction cost. The results in the extension of agriculture and of 
homemaking have justified the expectations of the advocates of this 
activity and argue strongly for its extension. 


CROPS. 


All agricultural statistics are now dominated bv the effects of the 
World War, and this is strikingly shown by a comparison of the 
table of irrigation and crop results presented herewith for 1919 with 
that for 1914 published in the Smithsonian Report for 1915 (p. 473). 

For all projects the crop report for 1919 shows a gross value of 
$89,000,000, or an average of $80 for each of the 1,113,000 acres 
cropped. Alfalfa continues as the great basic crop, occupying 38 
per cent of the crop area and furnishing nearly one-third of the total 
crop value. Cotton, while grown on only the four southernmost 
projects, brought in returns of over $20,000,000 in 1919. The follow- 
ing table presents statistics relating to crop production as collected 
by Government employees on the Reclamation Service projects. Fig- 
ures for crops from over 1,000,000 acres of lands on private projects 


‘ 
¥ 
: 
4 
4 
f 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. PLATE 7. 


CONCONULLY RESERVOIR, OKANOGAN PROJECT. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. PLATE 8. 


|. IRRIGATING AN ORCHARD, YAKIMA PROJECT. 


2. FLOATING DREDGE ENLARGING SUNNYSIDE MAIN CANAL, YAKIMA PROJECT. 


Smithsonian Report, 1919.—Bissell. PLATE 9. 


re ee 
. 
ey 


2, JACKSON LAKE DAM, WYOMING. 


"ONINOAM ‘SYSAIY SXHVNS SHL AO SHSLVMGVAH SHL NO ‘ 


"Ol S3LVid . *}19SSIG—"6 LOL ‘Uodey uBluOsYyIWS 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 511 


supplied with stored water from reservoirs constructed by the Recla- 
mation Service show crops valued at $64,000,000 more. 


Irrigation and crop results, Government reclamation projects, 1919.- 


Lands on projects proper covered by crop census. 


State and project. Crop value. 
Trrigable | Irrigated | Cropped 
acreage.? | acreage. | acreage.3 
Total. | Peracre. 


Arizona: . 
Salt Rivers. 2. .2 2p Spa et, ASC am 4212, 966 |5 205,064 | 188, 232 |$23, 768, 682 $126. 27 
Arizona-California: 
SN ESERE SA a cg we reer er 70, 000 58, 284 52,324 | 7,012,209 134.00 
California: 
MeN See oe RR Oa 20, 533 15, 203 12, 409 892, 259 71.90 
Colorado: 
Raters du Vealloyne eon k Gk a2) bua nlesetun et ee Nee 35,000} 10,049 8, 899 570, 629 64,12 
/SPECG(O} 10) 952 01-10 fy a A ae Rs a oe 100, 000 60, 906 59,746 | 3,391, 456 56. 76 
Idaho: 
TE Gist 4500 geal Seale Ace egiet eee ep Laem Baas SC 123,772 | 108,782} 99,093} 6,254,904 63. 12 
TEGTAYISTE (UUs A Me eS te a a 14, 500 4,993 3, 959 219, 246 55. 39 
Minidoka— 
(Gir 05 AiG ea oe Up ae Bae A eae 72,589 | 59,259] 57,068] 3,364,049 58. 95 
Piranesi Pe eh) ahs 48,976 45, 000 41,780 | 2,562,210 61.32 
Montana 
Huntley-....:::.. mobile! suonl a ves usenet idba ah 31,265 | 19,310] 19,310 948, 968 49.14 
AUIS Ri 9 5 OA fae A a 67, 000 25, 485 24,099 600, 864 24.93 
Sun River— 
Fort Shaw division 8............ aN as 14, 023 8, 186 8, 292 348, 820 42.07 
Greenfields division No. 1..............---- 9 26, 000 3,310 2, 902 23, 816 8. 20 
Montana-North Dakota: 
ower Yellowstone o.0 20. sesohs.ho. hee 42, 167 21,300 21, 289 869, 117 40. 82 
Nebraska- Wyoming: 
North Platte— 
Initorstate Unitce 22 eee Eee 111,915} 88,990 | 85,690] 3,916, 736 45.71 
INSP deo, Jands oss sees hoes. ok 17,800 10, 428 10,352 363, 718 35.13 
Oni Mar atICre tee a ete tt ae eis 12, 132 6, 258 6, 258 148, 367 22. 91 
Nevada: 
ING WIRRGS cts Sees EAE SESE eS 65, 809 44,324 43,296 | 1, 840, 650 10 56. 59 
‘New Mexico: 
@arlsbad sue ewe ON sy laden VON oases wid) biel ae 24,991 | 20,363] 18,753] 1,988,546 106. 04 
‘New Mexico-Texas: 
IRI OIG Tan GGsst ts Seung a cee ee nS es 107, 000 77, 033 72,170 | 3,825,107 53. 00 


1 Data are for calendar year (irrigation season), except on Salt River project, where data are for corre- 
sponding ‘‘agricultural year,’’ October, 1918, to November, 1919. 

2 Area Reclamation Service was prepared to supply water. 

8 Irrigated crops. Excludes smallareas in few projects cropped by dry farming. 

4 Includes so-called ‘‘dry lands”’ given right to rent water temporarily on account of ample storage. 

5 Includes 3,100 acres within town sites, about 8,500 acres reported “vacant’’ land, on some of which 
are roadways, ditches, etc., and over 5,000 acres of ‘‘home tracts,” including houses, lots, corrals, etc. 

6 Data furnished mainly by King Hill irrigation district. System was built under private auspices 
aaa finied States has undertaken its reconstruction; operation and maintenance are handled by the 

strict. 

7 Crop reports covered an additional area of 7,287 acres cropped by dry farming, producing crops worth 
$39,150, or $5.37 per acre. 

8 Above figures are for 196 irrigated farms, which included small tracts farmed without irrigation. In 
addition two units farmed ‘“‘dry’’ reported 3 acres of hay valued at $75 and 20 acres of pasture valued at $120. 

9 Limited by water available. Figure is approximate area under ditch. 
_ 0 For crops in full prodiucucn, excluding 10,247 acres of wild-grass pasture and 4,205 acres otherwise not 
in full production. For all crops, $42.50, 


512 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


* 
Irrigation and crop results, Government reclamation projects, 1919—Continued. 


Lands on projects proper covered by crop census. 


State and project. Crop value. 


Irrigable | Irrigated | Cropped 
acreage. | acreage. | acreage. 
Total. | Per acre. 


North Dakota: 


North Dakota pumping...-.....-..-.-2--.-.-: 12, 238 2, 446 2,370 $69, 990 $29. 53 
Oregon: 
Wimiatiile 23): Jess ees tae le enreaieete. ce 24, 501 10, 533 8, 464 633, 380 74, 83 
Oregon-California: 
Klamath Be UM oe eee Lr vameen sae 50,000] 37,881 | 32,688 859, 805 26.30 
South Dakota: 
Belles ourchetre came te ones e eer eR oe 82, 634 56, 255 56,255 | 1,962, 683 34. 89 
Utah: 
Strawberry Valleys. cost see eeea cece onesie 50, 000 33, 123 29,255 | 1,973,059 67.50 
Washington: j 
Okan ogiig £22 2S SOR sn ee pee Ee 10, 099 5, 849 5,314 | 1,951,475 367. 23 
Yakima— 
Sunnyside tmit fSo sa | Pee ee a 2 iaoatiee 100,130 | 90,000} 75,886 | 12, 678, 247 167.07 
Miebon unit... OHO. 2). eee ae a eR 32,000} 27,000} 26,300] 4,053,168 154. 10 
Wyoming: 
Shoshone— 
Garlandiiinit!: - 285.44... Lae ee ane ae |! 56,119 | 34,697 | 34,183] 1,708, 644 49. 98 
GRA Te Carats eR Sse ‘ 6, 944 6, 833 178, 333 26.10 
ING ETT ee hla geese 2 a Wea 1, 636, 159 |1, 187, 255 |1, 113, 469 | 88, 974, 137 79. 88 


INVESTIGATION OF SWAMP AND CUT-OVER LANDS. 


In the appropriation for the United States Reclamation Service 
for the fiscal year 1919, the Congress made the following provision 
for the investigation of swamp and cut-over lands: 

For an investigation to be made by the Director of the Reclamation Service 
of the reclamation by drainage of lands outside existing reclamation projects 
and of the reclamation and preparation for cultivation of cut-over timberlands 
in any of the States of the United States, including personal services in the 
District of Columbia and elsewhere, purchase, maintenance, repair, hire, and 
operation of motor-propelled or horse-drawn passenger vehicles, and for all 
other expenses, there is appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not 
otherwise appropriated, $100,000. 

In undertaking this investigation, the work fell naturally into 
three divisions, one comprising the States north of the Ohio River 
and east of the Missouri, another including the Southern States, and 
a third taking in the States lying partly or wholly west of the hun- 
dredth meridian. 

Any classification of the swamp and cut-over lands of the country 
must be exceedingly rough and general, as, owing to the nature of 
the case, two different authorities, however careful and skillful, will 
probably differ widely in results if these are independently obtained. 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 518 


This is due to the difficulty of setting any definite bounds to any class 
which may be adopted, owing to the following reasons: 

Lands needing drainage can not be absolutely delimited owing to 
the varying necessities of drainage at different times of year and in 
different years owing to change of season and mutations of climate. 
The area is also constantly changing by improvement of natural out- 
lets or the construction of artificial drains, and where the ground 
water stands too high for one character of production it may be 
suitable for another. Where the ground water is too high for success- 
’ ful agriculture in a wet year it may in a dry year for the same reason 
be superior to other lands in the vicinity with low water table. 

Many areas of cut-over lands also require drainage, and to be made 
agricultural must be not only drained but cleared of brush and 
stumps. Large areas of cut-over lands are too rough or too rocky 
for agriculture and should be allowed to reforest themselves; but 
opinions will differ on this point, and any useful classification must 
take these facts into consideration, 

Cut-over lands are even more difficult to define than those need- 
ing drainage. The majority of existing forests have at some time 
or other been cut over, and often the land has been actually in culti- 
vation and practically denuded of trees. The abandonment of fields 
or the neglect of the cut-over areas permits the growth of young 
timber, which is sometimes useful and sometimes of little value. 
Thus, by one definition, any land that has ever been timbered and 
cleared may be regarded as cut-over land, although in a high state of 
cultivation. This is obviously not the usual or accepted meaning 
of the term. If the fields have been abandoned and young brush has 
started up, it may in some cases be reduced to cultivation again at 
moderate expense any time in the first few years, but this expense 
may increase as the timber grows and clearing becomes more ex- 
pensive. After the lapse of 50 or 60 years the timber may become 
merchantable and the land, although strictly speaking it has been 
“cut over,” requires extensive clearing to reduce it to cultivation, and 
may be similar in its essential characteristics to the virgin forest. 

Where the merchantable timber has been cut, leaving. stumps, 
young brush, and smali trees, it constitutes a typical case of what is 
known as cut-over land, but as time passes the young trees grow to 
merchantable size, the stumps gradually decay, and in time this land 
ceases to be “ cut-over” land. 

Jt is thus obvious that different authorities, however careful or skill- 
ful, may differ widely in their reports of the actual areas of wet and 
cut-over lands and still more widely when attempt is made to classify 
these as agricultural and nonagricultural. For this reason, any sta- 
tistics on this subject must be regarded with allowance, and should. 
have the term used carefully defined, for specific tables. : 


514 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The distribution of reclaimable agricultural land is very irregular 
and erratic. The Lake States, the southern Atlantic, and the Gulf 
States contain vast areas of lands requiring drainage and also tim- 
berlands, the majority of which have been at some time or other cut 
over and a large proportion of which would be suitable for agricul- 
ture if properly cleared. It by no means follows that al) of such lands 
should be now or eventually devoted to agriculture. 

In many places the swamps and overflow lands serve useful pur- 
poses as reservoir sites to diminish the volume and intensity of the . 
floods of the drainage basins in which they occur, and each one should 
be carefully considered as to the advisability of continuing its serv- 
ices and improving its efficiency for these functions. The regulation 
of streams is important from many points of view. If our streams 
could be made to flow with comparative regularity instead of in great 
flood waves, it would terminate destructive floods that cause such 
havoc and loss of life. To accomplish this we must carry out gigantic 
projects, such as those in the Miami conservancy district in Ohio, 
designed mainly or exclusively to moderate the freshets and regulate 
the flow of the streams. 

The feasibility of such works depends largely upon the existence 
of suitable reservoir sites. 

A good reservoir site is in several respects a topographic rarity. 
It must ordinarily have a suitably located basin, with a sufficient 
watershed above, which can be closed and formed into a reservoir 
by a feasible dam of moderate cost which will form a reservoir of 
large capacity in order that its usefulness may be commensurate 
with its cost. Where such favorable reservoir sites exist they may 
be of great value and may constitute the key to the feasibility of 
river regulation, and if reclaimed for agriculture and built up with 
towns, villages, railroads, and other improvements, their cost soon 
becomes prohibitive, and the only feasible opportunity of river regu- 
lation may thus be destroyed. Every scheme for the drainage and 
reclamation of swamps and low-lying river bottoms should therefore 
be carefully considered in its relation to the country at large, and 
especially that below on the streams to which its waters are tribu- 
tary, and if the proposed reclamation will in fact destroy a good 
and useful reservoir site, it should not only be avoided but pre- 
cautions should be taken to prevent the accumulation of improve- 
ments which will become obstructions to its utilization for storage 
purposes. This principle is far more important than usually real- 
ized, because we are apt to overlook the need, the rarity, and the 
essential characteristics of feasible reservoir sites. ; 

Similar precautions are necessary in examining areas of timber 
or cut-over lands with reference to the wisdom of clearing and de- 
voting them to agriculture. Some lands are so hilly and rocky as 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 515 


to be unsuited to agriculture, although they may be fairly well 
adapted to forest growth, and these obviously should be devoted to 
that purpose; but, though this seems obvious when stated, it should 
be remembered that the principle has been often and extensively vio- 
lated. A considerable part of the alleged “abandoned” farm lands 
in the New England States are lands that should never have been 
cleared, as they are more suitable for forest growth than for agri- 
culture, and their abandonment has been simply the recognition of 
their appropriate use. 

The existence of rocks and hills is not by any means the only bar 
to the suitability of such lands for agriculture. The soil may be in 
some cases unsuitable for various reasons without expensive modifica- 
tion or application of expensive additions. 

Even where the soil and topography are highly suitable for agri- 
culture it by no means follows that it would be wise to clear the 
cut-over lands and devote them to that purpose. There may be other 
areas in the vicinity just as favorably conditioned where the cost of 
reclamation would be less or where the timber that must be removed 
is less valuable and different tracts should hence be considered in 
the light of their suitability for agriculture in location, topography, 
soil, and climate, and also the character of growth which clearing 
would remove in order that the most valuable timber stands may be 
allowed to mature. 

We should never forget that we will always need forests and wood 
lots to complete the prosperous community, and it is just as im- 
portant to consider and provide for this need in the most efficient 
and economical manner as it is to provide for any other community 
needs. In view of the above it is obvious that only a small fraction 
of the forested areas which are seen on the general map could be 
wisely reduced to cultivation at the present time, or even within 
the next generation. By a wise and skilful discrimination we must 
select those areas requiring the least expenditure and least destruc- 
tion to reduce them to cultivation, and must leave uninjured and 
adequately protected the areas needed for water storage and those 
most suitable for forest production. This still leaves an ample 
choice in the States mentioned for all of the reclamation that is likely 
to be carried out within the next generation, although the rules 
upon which selection is made must obviously be modified from time 
to time. 

RECLAMATION OF NEGLECTED FARMS, 


In some of the States where little or no opportunity exists for 
the reclamation of arid, wet, or cut-over lands there are still abun- 
dant opportunities for development which imvolves reclamation: of 
other kinds. Many areas exist which have been cultivated and for 


516 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


lack of proper treatment have become so nearly barren as to be 
considered exhausted and unprofitable for agriculture, and are wholly 
or partly abandoned. Some of these have improved by the interval 
of noncultivation, but the major portion require the addition of 
some of the elements of plant food or the elimination of deleterious 
qualities by proper treatment. 

The majority of eastern soils, for example, are more or less acid 
and require the application of lime or other antidotes to neutralize 
the acidity. They generally require also the addition of nitrogen, 
which can be accomplished by the proper growth of legumes to be 
incorporated with the soil by plowing under. Some also require 
the addition of phosphates or of potash, and the cases are numerous 
where such reclamation as that described is as appropriate and as 
profitable as reclamation of other kinds in other regions. In some 
cases large areas have been gradually concentrated in single owner- 
ships, and the system of tenantry which has followed does not pro- 
duce the best results but leads to the neglect and deterioration of 
the soil until its cultivation yields little profit. Where such areas 
can be acquired and cut up into homes they may be restored by 
proper tillage methods and the addition of nitrogen or other plant 
food until they are capable of constituting thickly settled and pros- 
perous colonies. It is often found that large ownerships and tenant 
farming are the accompaniments if not the causes of neglect and par- 
tial or entire abandonment of agriculture. Reclamation from such 
conditions is as wise and as necessary as any other mode of develop- 
ment. 

The purpose of the appropriation for these investigations was 
understood to be the feasibility of preparing farms for settlement 
by returned soldiers under a planned rural development such as has 
been carried out in Australia and many European countries with 
benefit both to the settler and the community at large. Investiga- 
tions have shown that many of the so-called abandoned or neglected 
farms in the Eastern and Middle States can be rehabilitated by 
proper culture with more or less clearing, draining, and leveling 
and the addition of lime or other needed constituents of soil. 

The investigations along this line were necessarily of a most pre- 
liminary nature, as one of the principal facts to be developed is the 
price of land, and no actual negotiations could be carried on to 
ascertain this in the absence of authority and funds for the purchase. 
The information, therefore, is of a general nature, but indicates that 
such opportunities of an attractive character can be found in prac- 
tically all the Northern, Eastern, and Middle States, where improved 
farms can often be purchased at but little increase over the present 
value of improvements, and by some or all of the methods of reclama- 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 517 


tion above mentioned can be made suitable for colonization at reason- 
able price. I 

Those same States also contain many large areas in private owner- 
ship, but held at very moderate prices, which belong in the category 
of wet and cut-over lands, requiring drainage in some cases and 
clearing in nearly all cases. In some instances they have been under 
cultivation in the past, but have been abandoned for many years, or 
used for pasture only, and allowed to grow up in brush, which will 
require clearing. Most of such lands also require the addition of 
lime, the building of roads, and the opening of drainage outlets to 
permit the escape of excessive rainfall. 


NORTHERN DIVISION. 


The northern division comprises the area east of the Missouri 
River and north of the Ohio. The opportunities for settlement are 
abundant in most of these States, and especially so in the Lake 
States—Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota—where vast areas of 
cut-over lands and lands needing drainage are found, and some of 
them were examined in detail. 

In several of the States of the Mississippi Valley where agricul- 
tural conditions are excellent the development has been so complete 
that only small areas of undeveloped lands have been found. Some 
of these are cut-over regions, some are naturally wet places needing 
drainage, and some are overflow lands which require levee protection 
and drainage works. These States, however, all contain consider- 
able areas in large ownerships, farmed by tenants, where results are 
unsatisfactory and are growing worse. Many of these offer favor- 
able opportunities for soldier settlements which will be nearly as 
beneficial to the country at large and as favorable for the soldier 
settlements as the reclaimed lands in other States. With proper 
local cooperation there is no doubt that favorable colonies can be 
established in all the States. 

In New York and Pennsylvania are considerable areas of good 
cut-over lands, some of which are adaptable to agriculture and very 
favorably situated for settlements.. The convenience of transporta- 
tion and the abundance of good markets near at hand give these 
regions important advantages over some others, and in New York 
are many areas requiring drainage which apparently will afford 
favorable locations for colonies. 

New England presents the extreme case of local need for agricul- 
ture. The present agricultural production of New England is but 
a fraction of what it was half a century ago, while the growth of 
population and of manufacturing industries makes a market which 


12573°—21——34 


518 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


draws more and more for subsistence upon the Mississippi Valley 
and the Far West. The development of agriculture here is of first 
importance in sustaining the manufacturing industries in the face 
of the necessity of transporting their food and raw materials. Many 
excellent opportunities for the development of cut-over lands, the 
drainage of wet lands, and especially the rehabilitation, fertiliza- 
tion, and building up of areas which have in the past been farmed but 
are now wholly or partially neglected are offered in this section. 

The decline of New England agriculture has been due in general 
to the demand of its growing manufactures for the necessary labor 
and the competition of cheap, fertile, and extensive agricultural 
areas of the Mississippi Valley and the great West. These lands are 
no longer cheap, and the growth of the Middle West is to a large 
extent absorbing the product of the. western farms, so that New 
England; must \enter into active competition, for. its food, supply 
under the handicap of costly transportation. . This condition. has re- 
versed: the influence which led to the decline of) New England -agri- 
culture, and in providing for its rehabilitation. the soldier settlement 
program affords the opportunity of doing this andat.the same time 
keeping at home the thousands of soldiers who enlisted from ee 
centers of population. 

SOUTHERN DIVISION. 


In the Southern States opportunities for colonization are of the 
same three classes. The largest areas are of cut-oyer lands. In past 
years small holdings of timberland have been acquired by lumber 
companies and merchantable timber has been cut and marketed 
as lumber. Many of. these large companies are now operating and 
are anxious to sell the cut-over oe usually ; at low prices. In some 
cases drainage would be required and in others drainage should be 
assisted by opening and straightening surface outlets to permit the 
ready escape of excessive rainfall. In some of the richest localities 
where land can be had.very cheaply, one of the principal drawbacks 
which must be overcome is the elimination of the swarms of mosqui- 
toes, which will require careful surface drainage and elimination of 
stagnant water. Also the clearing of luxuriant vegetation which 
springs up after the timber is removed. Such areas can only be suc- 
cessfully colonized in tracts of considerable size, as it is impracticable 
to carry out mosquito extermination on a small scale. In many of 
the Southern States, especially the border States, are to be found 
extensive areas which have been either abandoned or neglected since 
the Civil War and are of similar character to those described in New 
England. They can generally be purchased cheaply and rendered 
enue by clearing and the addition of lime and nitrates. 


CR amines We 


ee ee ee Te ae 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 519 
WESTERN DIVISION. 


. The eastern tier of the States comprised in this division—the 
Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas—have. consid- 
erable areas of humid land in which drainage is frequently needed 
and irrigation is not needed. Lands can be found in all of these 
States which are not swampy, but in which a high water table requires 
that they be drained in order to fit them for other use than pasture 
or meadow or forest culture. Drainage can in many cases be pro- 
vided at reasonable cost and where clearing is necessary this also 
is comparatively inexpensive. Farther west, irrigation projects 
have been investigated in the past and numerous opportunities of 
feasible development of this character exist in most of the Western 
States. 

_Such reclamation can be applied to public land in Wyoming, Idaho, 
Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona. In the other arid 
States most.of the land to be reclaimed is in private ownership. 

The areas. west of the hundredth meridian present many oppor- 
tunities for reclamation not only by irrigation but by drainage and 
by the clearing of cut-over lands, the latter opportunities occurring 
chiefly in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California. 
Only a small percentage of these lands, however, are really suitable 
for reclamation at the present time. East of the mountain ranges the 
cut-over lands are mainly arid or semiarid and hence require irriga- 
tion for successful agriculture. The combination of the cost of irri- 
gation and of the necessary clearing and leveling of the lands is 
usually prohibitive even in the cases where irrigation is feasible at 
all, and in such cases it is usually best to encourage the reforestation 
of the lands by protecting the young growth from fire. Considerable 
areas of semiarid land may by scientific methods be successfully culti- 
vated without irrigation, but as the results are more or less precarious, 
the values for such agricultural use are usually not high and may 
exceed the cost of clearing. 

There are cases, however, where such reclamation may be wisely 
carried out. In the extreme Northwest, on the Pacific slope, are large 
areas oi cut-over lands where deep and excellent soil occurs, where 
the topography is suitable, and where the rainfall is also sufficient for 
successful farming. Some areas in this region can be profitably and 
wisely devoted to agriculture, but in a large portion the cost of clear- 
ing, owing to the number, size, and character of the stumps that are 
in the way, would at present values of agricultural land make the 
enterprise prohibitive, and the land can best be utilized by reforesta- 
tion. This is true also to some extent in western Oregon and north- 
western California. A large portion of the cut-over lands in the 
Northwest is, of course, unsuitable for agriculture on account of 


520 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


topography and rocky soil and can best. be restored to forest con- 
dition. 

The great bulk of the land west of the hundredth meridian which 
is not too high, cold, or rocky for agriculture is arid. Of this 
arid portion, over 15,000,000 acres have been placed under irri- 
gation by private or public enterprise, and in carrying out this work, 
of course, the more favorable opportunities for such irrigation have 
been developed. It will still be possible to add many million acres 
to the irrigated area and perhaps to double the area now irrigated, 
but this must generally be done at high cost, as the cheap opportuni- 
ties have been long since exhausted. There are remaining, however, 
many areas which can be irrigated within feasible costs and will 
develop values far in excess of the necessary expenditures. They 
will furnish healthful homes for settlers and will supply agricul- 
tural products and food resources in proximity to great mining and 
grazing resources, which will be made more valuable thereby. There 
is much room for wise and profitable activity in this line in most of 
the Western States, but the total areas that can be thus reclaimed 
are much less than those offering opportunities in the States farther 
east. : 

‘The following table summarizes the results of the investigations 
made in the western division: 


Projecis and extensions of projects investigated by the Reclamation. Service 
in the Western States. 


1 These estimates must be considered as merely preliminary and subject to change. 


2 Indian. 


3 Lands not classified; classification shown is assumed. 


4 No estimate. 


Trrigable acreage. Readiness 
State'and project. altitude. bent epee onctegee 
Public. | Private. | State. tion. 
Arizona: Feet. | Inches. 
Sani@arlogs <-so4: see. 2 40, 000 BOROOM | aocmemenit 1, 500 10 {$13,600,000 | Not ready. 
California: 
Imperial Valley......./:} 400,000 |....22.2.2)e..0- 2200 —200 3h | 52,000,000 | Ready. 
Palo Verdes. .5 2) aie be 405000) | eeee eee 250 3 5, 000, 000 | Not ready. 
Turlock-Modesto.......|---------- 260, 000 |..---.----- 95 12 | 5,000,000 Do. 
Rem PS RIVED ic eee ce eles cokes ses 400; G00 S.2er ers. 225 10 | 12,000, 000 Do. 
Orland extension....-...|-..----.-- 30,000 |--.-. 2-2. 245 18 2,500,000 | Ready. 
Dron, Cany Oss c ps 2. crs! greet Peers QIAO00 ee. 230 17 | 30,000,000 | Not ready. 
Cuyamaca, Water Co....|....-.-.-- Bia POU ya aeiceiae 400 12 (4) Do. 
Volcan Land & Water 
CoMpt att iss A ERO eee 324,600. f. 22-2522 500 15 ~@) Do. 
TOSS Vip Me yg ices kA on paces ce’ 517 800) | tes eck 4,400 122 | 1,100,000 Do. 
Colorado: 
Grand Valley...:-....-- 15, 000 LS SOO0" eee e2 he 4, 825 8 600, 000 | Ready. 
Grand Valley drainage .|..-.------ SO; O00 SELES. . 4, 650 8 1,200,000} Do. 
Orehard Mesavt- 3.5 ccc Bl pes sot <2 OOD Soe sae 4,750 8 800, 000 Do. 
Uncompahgre.......... 10, 000 OV, QU0!| Sseceeenee 5, 500 93 500, 000 Do. 


‘ 


i 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION—BISSELL. 


521 


Projects and extensions of projects investigated by the Reclamation Service 


im the Western States—Continued. 


Trrigable acreage. 


Mean Mean Probable 


State and project. altitude. | rainfall. | cost. 
Private. | State. 
Colorado—Continued. Feet. | Inches. 
Montezuma. ..--..-2----|-----2---- 8,000 5, 000 12 | $3,500, G00 
San Luis Valley drain- 
APCs cece---cnec-S--n-{----------1 400,000 ]-....-..-- 7, 600 7 | 10,000, 000 
Idaho: 
Si ages ie el eEae: SSE 1,000 2, 800 13 700, 000 
Black Canyon. ..------- 1, 000 2,400 12 2, 000, 000 
Minidoka....-...------- 6, 750 4,300 124 | 15,000, 000 
(Gand Ore ao Ramee Ae es a: SOS ere UO Boeoee eee. 2, 350 12 750, 000 
Lake Waleotte:.---22.}  2,,4800|....---.-- 20 4, 400 123 215, 000 
American Falls Reser- 

TOE Sas ee eee ee 5 33,000 | 33,000 |....-.-.-- zs 3108 eee ee 12, 000, 000 
Island Park Reservoir..}| 610,700) 5,000 |.......-... 6, 250 15 4,000, 000 
Boise Valley drainage. .|......--.- ravine eee 2, 500 124 600, 000 
Payette Valley drainage.;..........| 10,000 |.--------- 2, 250 114 180, 000 
Shelley Canal........--. SHOONOOONE SP eater tees ea 4, 600 14 (4) 
BEUMeR Es eee) se sche ss BA00SO00) pee 2e4e sa |ee ee 2 4,200 11 (4) 
Mountain Home...-..--. S4008000) |e 2a stelle eect. Sac 4,000 13 (4) 
North Side Twin Falls..| 350,000 |..........]....------ 4,000 12 (4) 
North Side pumping....|? 115,000 |..........]........-- 4,000 12 (4) 
Hansen Butte.......... Cp O10 Re aera Saye eee eta 4,000 12 (4) 
Wood River. .-....4...- EAE 1, (0700 Vega ares Lene ya, ae? 4,200 14 (4) 
BIEDOIS see ee de BOO MOON meee sek | Meketee 4,800 15 (4) 
Idaho Falls pumping. -.|3100,000 |.....-....|-...-..--- 4,700 15 (4) 

Montana: 
Milk River— 
Chinook Division. .|....-.-... GUN 0p Eee SB eee Seer Rees Seae eeoersasccoe 
Beaver Creek Divi- 
SIGN. oe eee tsa 1O,D00) IS <2 seb se 708 2, 200 14 1, 700, 000 
Out Bankers tec! soho. 225-000)|', 11,0004... sha 3, 800 13 | 1,200,000 
Bun Wiver. 22: 2c2b . 5. 35,000 | 30,000 ;..---.---- 4,100 11 | 4,000, 000 
ISTIC eB aaoaaing aes Seeage see SLU RAS See 3, 450 ipl 1, 500, 000 
JUCUH Basico oc cabs sla. cleans 36,500} oo 2 sek 4,300 17 2,505, 000 
Missoula~Huson........|........-- SU OOM be ae 3, 100 16 313,000 
Helona i lats: soe ck c.|l ek TSS DOO gee bs 2,800 16 450, 000 
Nebraska: 
North Platte extensions.| 65,000 88, 000 10, 000 4,100 13 9, 000, 000 
Mawson County =< 5-2: --|o-.-42b- << ao, 000)Peeceae === 2, 700 22 2, 500, 000 
MEETS Canale sacar nee ee BUNUCUN eect e ee 2, 600 22 | 2,000, 000 
Nevada: 
Upper Carson......-.--- 3, 500 BOROOON Ema Aialssieic 4,800 12 2, 000, 000 
Pyramid Lake......-..- 15, 600 ODOM ote ose os 4,000 4.| 1,200,000 
Humboldt River.......|.......--- CVC S(OND)s eee Wes 4, 200 9 | 9,000,000 


1 These estimates must be considered as merely preliminary and subject to change. 
2Tndian. 

3 Lands not classified; classification shown is assumed. 

4 No estimate. 

6 In Fort HallIndian Reservation. 

6In Targhee National Forest. 


Readiness 
for 
construc- 
tion. 


Not ready. 
Ready. 


Do. 
Do. 
Not ready. 
Ready. 
Do. 


Not ready. 

Ready. 
Do. 
Do. 

Not ready. 
Do. 


Ready. 
Not ready. 
Ready. 
Not ready. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 


Ready. 
Not ready. 
Do. 


Ready. 
Do. 
Not ready. 


522 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


Projects and extensions of projects mvestigated by the Reclamation Service 


in the Western States—Continued. 


Irrigable acreage. 


State and project. a Bee Mean | Probable 


rainfall. cost. 
Public. | Private.| State. 
New Mexico: Feet. | Inches. 
San Juan Fennec te PARDO OOO Feet ae panes | eran aaa a 5, 200 8 (4) 
Middle Rio Grande 
PAIN Ae ween seats aia) ison ae es LOONOOO!| ie eae ce 4,800 7% | $5,500, 000 
Oregon: 
Klamath pumping units}.....-...- 23,000))_. i. 3-4: 4,100 12 1, 200, 000 
Langell Valley....-.\...-|..-------- AT OOO Re cea 4,200 124 | 1,000,000 
Pulp Lake. foo ees i) ae Abela Sal 4,000 14 | 1,250,000 
Ore Riversseehs esos |- eee ase. 30,000 |P2s228. 2s 1, 600 20 | 2,000,000 
Greater Umatilla. ...... 3,500 | Be MP = 500 8} | 3,100,000 
8 3,050 
Owyhee: sain iiie aaa 6,000} 17,000 ].......-.- 2, 200 10 | 2,100,000 
Deschutes.......--- Aa al a ners 21 (200,000 Tae eee. 2 3, 200 9 | 12,000, 000 
Lower Powder River...| 38,000 25 OOO Wests ca 3, 000 13 7, 000, 000 
Horsefly storage. ..-.--- 2,000 CUT eee: Bas 4,100 124 300, 000 
South Dakota: 
Belle Fourcheextension.| 11,000 22, 300 3, 917 2, 800 143 700, 000 
Texas: 
Tornilla-Fort Hancock 
CSUe | RRR Pe OA ar CS i Ee Ba Pap VA) Ae a 3,500 8 1, 200, 000 
Lower Rio Grande......|.........- GOO O00 3 Pees Se 80 26 (4) 
Utah: 
Castle Peak...-.....|.--- (0;000 3 eeere-tee ol ceeeEeee 5, 200 9 7, 000, 000 
Price MiVer. +2 = = bio) OO; 0003) Saiemert sess aeeeeet oe 5,500 12 (4) 
1D bao ae ec ee a 30,000 |-.------ Se eA eee Sees 3, 000 83 (4) 
Utah Valley drainage...|...-.--.-.- 30; 000) 52 metre 4,500 18 1, 000, 000 
Hast duab County .b..4|.222--eese EY B{O)s O100Us | eee Gee 5,000} : 13 | 5,000,000 
Washington: : 
Yakima High line...-.. 13,600 | 130,000 6, 000 1, 000 7 | 20,000, 000 
RAGGA Moe sce oes oe 5, 000 62, 500 2,500 1, 800 95 | 8,500,000 
Methow-Okanogan.....].......... 842 00ONE aa ospeas 1,000 12 (4) 
Kennewick irrigation 
Gistriche 2: Soe ses. Bace 6,400 | 27,500 1,100 600 7 | 6,125,000 
Wyoming: 
Frannie extension . ....-. 35, 000 1,000 1, 800 4,200 6 500, 000 
Heart Mountain unit...) 34,100 1,500 3, 200 4,900 6 3, 300, 000 
Willwood unit.......... 14, 700 320 600 4,300 6 900, 000 
Oregon Basin......-..-- 68000) centers ence 4,500 6 (4) 


1 These estimates must be considered as merely preliminary and subject to change. 
3 Lands not classified; classification shown is assumed. 

4 No estimate. 

7 In Navajo Indian Reservation. 

8 Railroad. 

917,000 withdrawn under Carey Act. 


Readiness 


Not ready. 


Ready. 


Do. 
Not ready. 


Do. 


Do. 
Ready. 
Not ready. 

Do. 


Do. 
Ready. 
Not ready. 


Do. 


Ready. 
Not ready. 
Ready. 
Not ready. 


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i 


"| ALlv1d *ulwelusg—'616| ‘odey uB!UOSy}IWS 


RICHARD RATHBUN.« 


By Marcus BENJAMIN. 


[With 1 plate.] 


American science has lost.one of its distinguished authorities on 
invertebrate zoology, and the United States National Museum its 
honored chief by the death of Richard Rathbun in the city of Wash- 
ington early on the morning of July 16, 1918. 

_ Richard Rathbun was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 25, 
1852, and there studied in the public schools until he reached the age 
of 15 years, when he entered the service ofa firm of contractors, with 
which he remained for 4, years, acquiring a thorough knowledge of 
business methods, that was of special value to him during his later 
years. 

_ At that time, attracted by the specimens of fossils that abound in 
western New York, he began the study of paleontology to which he 
assiduously devoted his evenings and holidays... The collection in the 
museum of the Buffalo Society of National Sciences was made by him 
and he was appointed curator. of that subject with charge of its col- 
lections by the society, 

In 1871, he met Charles Fred. Hartt, then professor of geology at 
Cornell University and a pupil of the elder Agassiz, who persuaded 
him to give up business pursuits and devote himself to science. Young 
Rathbun accordingly entered Cornell and followed the regular aca- 
demic course with the class of 1875, specializing, however, in geology 
and paleontology. 

The collections of Devonian and Cretaceous fossils. previously 
obtained by Hartt in Brazil were assigned to him to work up and re- 
sulted in the publication of his first paper: “ On the Devonian Bra- 
chiopoda of Ereré, Province of -Par4, Brazil,” in the Bulletin of the 
Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences for 18742 followed by a “ Pre- 
liminary Report on the Cretaceous Lamellibranchs Collected in the 
Vicinity of Pernambuco, Brazil,” in the. Proceedings of the Boston 
Society of Natural aig for 1874. p 

In the preparation of his paper on the Devonian fossils, he spent 
some time in Albany, New York, where he came under the influence 


1 Reprinted by permission from Science, N. S., Vol. XLVIII, No. 1236, September 6, 
ADLS. orgs 

2 Vol. i ay ae 236-261. 

8 Vol. 17, pp. 241-256. 


523 


524 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


of James Hall, the State geologist of the great Empire State; and 
later while completing the paper on the Cretaceous fossils he studied 
at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, where he was so fortunate 
as to be able to attend a course of lectures by the elder Agassiz, then 
in the last year of his life. 

Cambridge proved a congenial environment, and so instead of re- 
turning to Cornell, he continued at the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology from 1878 till 1875, acting also as assistant in zoology at the 
Boston Society of Natural History. During the summer months of 
those years he served as volunteer scientific assistant under Spencer 
F. Baird in the marine explorations of the United States Fish Com- 
mission on the New England coast, and thus began his connection 
with the Smithsonian Institution, for at that time the scientific work 
of the Fish Commission was pees under the direction of the 
Smithsonian. 

In the autumn of 1875 he received the appointment of geologist to 
the Geological Commission of Brazil with orders to report to Profes- 
sor Hartt in Rio de Janeiro, and with that service he continued until 
March, 1878. His first field work was in the region about the Bay 
of Bahia, and continued thence down the coast of the province of the 
same name to near its southern end. Extensive deposits of coal said 
to occur in parts of that region constituted one of the special objects 
of the exploration, but the geology was studied in every particular, 
including the extensive coral reefs that lie along the coast, and also 
the ethnology of the Indian tribes living inland. The report on the 
geology and coral reefs was published in the Archives of the National 
Museum of Rio de Janeiro in 1878.* 

Later he explored the central and southern parts of the province 
of Sio Paulo for the purpose of determining the mineral, and es- 
pecially the coal, resources, and while these proved to be unimportant, 
he had the opportunity of studying the origin of the rich red lands 
where the famous coffee of that region is grown. 

On returning to the United States, Mr. Rathbun brought with him 
complete series of the Devonian and Cretaceous fossils which have 
since become the property of the United States National Museum. It 
had been his hope to have monographed this interesting material, 
but other duties claimed his attention and with the exception of a few 
papers such as “A List of the Brazilian Echinoderms, with Notes 
on Their Distribution,” which he contributed to the Transactions of 
the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences for 1879,° the ma- 
terial was worked up by other scientists. 

Meanwhile he had accepted from Secretary Baird the appointment 
of scientific assistant in the United States Fish Commission with 


“Vol. 3, pp. 159-183. 5 Vol, 5, pp. 139-158. 


RICHARD RATHBUN—BENJAMIN. 595 


which service he then continued until 1896. At first the collections 
of the Fish Commission were preserved in the museum of Yale Uni- 
versity in the custody of Prof. A. E. Verrill, to whom he was detailed 
as assistant, serving also at that time as assistant in zoology at Yale 
University. 

In 1880, owing to the approaching completion of the United States 
National Museum building, Mr. Rathbun was transferred from New 
Haven to Washington and brought with him a part of the collections 
which had been stored at the former place. At that time he was made 
curator of the department of marine invertebrates in the National 
Museum, an appointment which he continued to hold until 1914. 

As the Fish Commission grew, much of the administrative work 
was assigned to Mr. Rathbun by Secretary Baird and the respon- 
sibility steadily increased until Baird’s death in 1887. Meanwhile, 
although Professor Verrill of Yale was the nominal head of the sum- 
mer investigations of the Fish Commission, during much of the time 
Mr. Rathbun had active charge of the laboratories, steamers, and 
equipment and was responsible for the general management of the 
work. The collections were mostly assorted under his supervision 
for distribution to specialists. His own studies at that time related 
to the commercial fisheries and to the working up of the natural his- 
tory of several groups of invertebrates. 

During 1880 and 1881 he was employed upon the fishery investiga- 
tions of the Tenth Census and reported on the natural history of, and 
the fisheries for, the commercial lobsters, crabs, shrimps, corals, and 
sponges; the marine fishing grounds of North America with the ocean 
temperatures of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Much of 
this material appeared in “'The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of 
the United States,” which was prepared through the cooperation 
of the Commissioner of Fisheries and the Superintendent of the 
Tenth Census under the direction of George Brown Goode. Mr. 
Rathbun’s contributions to these official reports amounted to. 550 
quarto pages with 106 plates. 

Incidental to his work at this period ¥ was his association with col- 
leagues in the gathering of material for the Great International Fish- 
eries Exhibition held in London in 1884. He prepared and described 
the “Collection of Economic Crustaceans, Worms, Echinoderms and 
Sponges” * and he was the author of the “ Descriptive Catalogue of 
the Collection illustrating the Scientific Investigation of the Sea and 
Fresh Waters.” ” 

In 1891, at the request of the Secretary of State, he assisted John 
W. Foster in preparing material for the United States case at the 
Paris fur-seal tribunal. He had the services of several experts, and 


® Bull, 27, U. S. Nat. Mus., pp. 107-1387. TIdem, pp. 511-622. 


526 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


was called to report upon the laws of all nations relating to the extra- 
limital fisheries for whales, hair seals, fisheries, precious corals, pearls, 
beche de mer, ete., and also upon. the distribution and habits of these 
forms. Reports of progress were made daily to Secretary Foster, 
and the more essential parts of the completed report were incor- 
porated in the extended brief of the American agent. 

During the entire period of the fur-seal inquiries Mr. Rathbun 
was in charge of the investigations, except those of the first inter- 
national commission. The steamer Albatross made yearly trips to 
Bering Sea with one or more experts, who were directed to study 
the habits of these animals and to make an annual comparative 
record of their distribution and numbers by written notes and 
identical series of photographs. The work was.also extended to the 
Russian islands. 

The most important international commission to the fur-seal 
islands was the one dispatched in 1896. ‘This expedition, with the 
cooperation of the Secretary of State, was conducted by the Treas- 
ury Department. Charles S. Hamlin, then Assistant Secretary of 
the Treasury, was in immediate charge of the case, and Mr. Rath- 
bun was called to be his chief adviser. The latter was asked to 
become the head of the American commission, but, declining, was 
requested to nominate its members, which he did. Mr. Rathbun 
also prepared the instructions for the commission, which entered 
into every detail and every accusation on the part of Canada. 

In December, 1892, Mr. Rathbun was appointed by President 
Harrison as the American representative on the joimt commission 
with Great Britain to study the condition of the fisheries in the 
boundary waters between the United States and Canada and the 
seacoast waters adjacent to the two countries, and to report such 
measures as might be deemed necessary to insure the protection of 
these fisheries: No similar investigation of such magnitude and 
importance was ever before attempted, and four years were required 
for its accomplishment. A large party of experts was put in the 
field on the part of the United States, and Canada assisted to the 
extent of its facilities. Mr. Rathbun personally visited every point 
of interest, starting with the Gulf: of St. Lawrence, continuing 
through the fresh-water systems, including the Great Lakes, and 
ending at Cape Flattery at the west. The report submitted to the 
Department of State on December 31, 1896, was transmitted by the 
President to Congress and printed. 

It had been Sebuibuity Baird’s intention to have Mr. Rathbun 
transferred to the National Museum, so that he might give his entire 
time to the development. of the disphnthaekit ‘of marine invertebrates 
and the working up of the important collections that were con- 


RICHARD RATHBUN—BENJAMIN. 527 


stantly being received, but on the death of Baird in 1887 Dr. G. 
Brown Goode, who succeeded temporarily to the office of Fish Com- 
missioner, persuaded Mr. Rathbun, in consequence of his long expe-~ 
rience and familiarity with the work, to remain with the commis 
sion. Later, when Col. Marshall McDonald became permanent com- 
missioner, he was equally appreciative of Mr. Rathbun’s valuable 
qualities and likewise was able to induce him to remain with the 
bureau until his own death in 1895. 

In 1896, on the invitation of Secretary Langley, he accepted ap- 
pointment in the Smithsonian Institution, and on January 1, 1897, 
began his duties as assistant in charge of office and exchanges. 
Before the expiration of the month his abilities were so manifest 
and his appreciation of the conditions so complete that he was made 
assistant secretary. This place he then held until July 1, 1898, when, 
still continuing as assistant secretary, he was given charge of the 
National Museum, in which capacity he remained until his death. 

Tt is almost impossible to attempt to consider in detail the many 
ramifications of the great work that he accomplished, and naturally 
the minor, but certainly not unimportant, interests are obscured by 
the larger events to which he gave the later years of his life. 

The most important of these was the construction of the new 
building, in which the natural history collections are preserved. . His 
intense interest in this undertaking, as well as his remarkable. ca- 
pacity for studying details, is perhaps best shown by his careful 
preliminary study “The United States National. Museum: An 
Account of the Buildings Occupied by the National Collections,” 
that appeared in the annual report of the United States National 
Museum for 1903.° 
_ The years of patient watching and waiting for the completion of 
the structure, with his perfect knowledge of every detail, can never 
be satisfactorily told in words, but they are strikingly illustrated 
by the careful “Descriptive Account of the Natural History Build- 
ings of the United States National Museum” that forms No. 80 of 


the bulletin series,® that he published in 1913. on the completion .of 
the. building. 


These two publications show how much he gave of himself to the 
perfection of a work that, must always remain as the greatest monu- 
ment that can be reared to his painstaking genius. 

With an interest equal to that shown by him in the construction 
of the new Museum building, he undertook the development of the 
National Gallery of Art, an important feature of the Smithsonian 
Institution, which, although the one mentioned first in the funda- 
mental act, had remained dormant for lack of adequate facilities, 


§Pp. 177-315, pls. 1-29. ®Pp. 1-131, with pls. 1-34. 


528 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The valuable collection of painting and art objects bequeathed by 
Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston in 1903 to the National Gallery of Art 
afforded an opportunity quickly appreciated by Mr. Rathbun, who, 
recognizing its importance, began at once to plan for the building 
up of a great national art gallery. In 1904 the Freer collection, with 
its unique specimens of Whistler’s art work, was tendered and ac- 
cepted by the Institution, and in 1907 William T. Evans began his 
gifts of selected paintings by contemporary American artists, which 
number more than 150 canvases and an equal number of other art 
objects. With these and other gifts the National Gallery of Art has 
“attained a prominence that has brought world-wide recognition.” 
A permanent record of this development has been left by Mr. Rath- 
bun in Bulletin No. 70 of the United States National Museum, under 
the title of “ The National Gallery of Art, Department of Fine Arts 
of the National’ Museum,”?° a volume remarkable for its artistic 
appearance, to every detail of which he gave his personal attention. 

His natural taste for research and his tendency to go to the bot- 
tom of things led him to make elaborate studies on the collections, 
and he has left behind him a valuable series of notes from which 
the future historians will find little that is lacking concerning the 
early history of the Museum. At times interesting developments 
presented themselves, and as typical of those his last important 
publication may be cited. It was “The Columbian Institute for 
the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, a Washington society of 1816— 
1838, which established a museum and botanic garden under Goy- 
ernment patronage ” (pp. 1-85), which was published as No. 101 of 
the bulletin series of the National Museum in 1917. 

Subsequent to the death of Secretary Langley, in February, 1906, 
and until the election of his successor a year later, Mr. Rathbun 
served as acting secretary, and frequently during the absence of 
Secretary Walcott the guidance of the affairs of the parent institu- 
tion was intrusted to Mr. Rathbun as acting secretary. 

His bibliography numbers nearly 100 titles, and, in addition to 
those already mentioned, he was the author of various scientific 
papers contributed to the serial publications of the Fish Commis- 
sion and the National Museum, as well as a few biographies of 
friends and colleagues, such as Charles F. Hartt and Jerome H. 
Kidder; several popular articles contributed to current literature; 
and a series of official reports, of which notably those of the National 
Museum are conspicuous evidences of his patient industry. 

Intense devotion to duty was a striking trait of Mr. Rathbun’s 
character, and so, absorbed in the details of his various activities, 


10 Hirst ed., 1909, pp. 1-140, pls. 1-26; 2d ed., 1916, pp. 1-189, 


RICHARD RATHBUN—BENJAMIN. 529 


all of which had to do with the institution to which he gave his life, 
he had but little time for other interests. 

Nevertheless, his scientific work gained deserved recognition from 
Indiana University, which in 1883 conferred upon him the degree of 
M. S., and in 1894 Bowdoin gave him her doctorate in science. 

His colleagues found pleasure in dedicating in his honor recently 
discovered forms of life, and a genus of fishes, Rathbunella (“in 
recognition of his many services to science”), as well as a genus of 
starfish, Rathbunaster (“in appreciation of his pioneer work on 
Pacific starfishes”), and many new species of plants, batrachians, 
fishes, and mollusks preserve his name in the literature of science. 

Naturally he was a member of many scientific societies. At home 
he was active in the Biological Society of Washington, and he was 
an early member of the Philosophical Society, becoming its presi- 
dent in 1902; also he was a member of the Washington Academy 
of Sciences, and in 1905 he was chosen by his associates to be presi- 
dent of the Cosmos Club, an honor that he greatly appreciated. 

Among the national societies he was a fellow (since 1892) of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, correspond- 
ing member of the Boston Society of Natural History, member of the 
American Society of Naturalists, councilor of the American Associa- 
tion of Museums, and a member of the American Fisheries Society. 

His foreign connections included membership in the Fisheries 
Society of Finland, the Russian Imperial Society for the Acclimati- 
zation of Animals and Plants, and corresponding membership since 
1917 in the Zoological Society of London. 

Mr. Rathbun was also a permanent councilor of the International 
Fisheries Congress, a member of the American committee for the 
Boston meeting of the International Zoological Congress, and in 
recent years every gathering of scientists, such as the International 
Congress of Applied Chemistry, the International Congress of Amer- 
icanists, and the Second Pan American Scientific Congress held in 
Washington, placed his name on their honor lists of distinguished 
members. 

At a memorial meeting of the various members of the staff of the 
Smithsonian Institution and its branches, held in the National Mu- 
seum on the day of Mr. Rathbun’s death and presided over by Mr. 
Henry White, a regent of the institution, record was made of “their 
profound sorrow at the loss of a sincere friend, an executive officer of 
marked ability, and one whose administration has had a wide in- 
fluence upon the scientific institutions of the Nation.” 


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A GREAT CHEMIST: SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY. 
By CH. MoureEv. 


Although the progress of science is continuous, it is neither uni- 
form nor regular... From time to time this progress is suddenly 
accelerated, leaving strewn along the route the successive bounds, 
and, creating thus a sort of discontinuity in the continuity. These 
sudden forward leaps are the work of a small number of geniuses 
whose discoveries guide the countless efforts. of experimenters. When 
Dalton. conceived the atomic hypothesis, he opened up, and made 
fertile the entire domain of. chemistry... When Davy isolated. the 
alkaline metals he revealed to astonished chemists a whole new world. 
The idea, of chemical. function, the law of substitution, the law of 
the homology, the atomic theory, are fundamental additions to 
knowledge derived from the works of Dumas, Laurent, and Gerhardt, 
who have) transformed, and rejuvenated chemistry, opening to it 
wider horizons...In opening, synthesis..as a channel for organic 
chemistry, Berthelot rolled back its frontiers immeasurably.’ .It is in 
the ranks of these great chemists, worthy followers of Lavoisier and 
of Priestley, that belongs the brilliant investigator, the fertile in- 
ventor, the hardy pioneer whose work, so deeply original, and whose 
powerful personality, the counselor. of. the: Chemical Society has 
given me the flattering mission of reviewing before you. 

The name of Sir William Ramsay calls to mind at once, with all 
their meaning, two capital discoveries, to. some extent: paradoxical : 
On the one hand, the existence in the atmospheric air of a series of 
gaseous elements, which their chemical inertness relegates:to the very 
borderland of chemistry; on the other hand, the production of one 
of these gases, helium, by the spontaneous disintegration of the 
radium atom, two classes of facts essentially new and of fundamental 
importance, whose discovery was possible only to an investigator of 
the highest. rank, capable through exceptional ability, natural or 
acquired, of bringing light into the darkness of the unknown. 

Of Scotch origin—he was born, in. Glasgow in 1852—Ramsay’s 
hereditary influences were most favorable, In his family were chem- 
ists and doctors of note, and one of his uncles, Sir Andrew Ramsay, 
was a well-known geologist. Thus, as he himself liked to recall, Ram- 


1 Translated by permission from Reyue Scientifique, October, 1919. 
531 


532 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


say was descended from ancestors well above the average intellectu- 
ally and in scientific pursuits, and he was well aware that he owed 
to them his calling and his ability as a chemist. 

Having begun his studies in his native city, Ramsay went to com- 
plete them in Germany, at first at Heidelberg, with Bunsen, and 
afterwards in Tubingen in the Fittig laboratory, where after some 
researches on the ammonia compounds of platinum, he studied the 
toluic acids. Organic chemistry attracted him by the flexibility of 
its combinations and the ingeniousness of its structural theories. On 
his return to Glasgow, where he secured a post as assistant, he stud- 
ied specially the pyridic group, doubtless attracted by the problem 
of the synthesis of the cinchona alkaloids. Let us recall the synthe- 
sis of pyridine itself by the direct union of cyanhydriec acid with 
acetylene, the production of the different pyridinic acids by the oxida- 
tion of the bases of Anderson, the production of the same acids (in 
collaboration with Dolbie) from quinine, from cinchonine, etc., an 
important observation which directly related these alkaloids to 
pyridine. 

In 1880, at the age of 28, given the title of professor of chemistry 
at the University of Bristol, Ramsay began, in collaboration with 
his assistant, S. Young, a series of works on physicochemistry which 
were not slow in being noticed. They had for an object the revision 
of the physicochemical properties of a certain number of liquid types, 
water, alcohols, ethers, hydrocarbons, etc., with a view especially of 
determining exactly the relation of these properties to the atomic or 
molecular weights. A vast field was thus explored: the densities of 
steam, the tensions of steam, thermic constants, dissociation, critical 
points were studied and many new and interesting observations were 
made. For the execution of so many delicate researches, all kinds 
of new apparatus had to be designed and constructed, with the re- 
sult, extremely fortunate for the following of his career, that Ram- 
say became a very adroit blower of glass. Many of these contrivances 
are to-day in every-day use in laboratories. — 

It was in 1887 that Ramsay was called to the University College 
at London, to succeed Williamson in that chair of chemistry already 
renowned, which he was by his efforts to make shine with a great 
light. For 30 years in fact, Ramsay was to display in this post of 
honor the most fertile and brilliant activity. His peculiar qualities 
as an experimenter and his originality stood out in striking relief in 
a work which he published in 1893 in collaboration with Shields. 
Following a remarkable series of researches on surface tensions and 
densities at different temperatures, Ramsay gave to science the first 
experimental method of determining the molecular weights of sub- 
stances in a liquid state. 


SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 533 


We will leave here various other works, of a special nature, in or- 
der to come without more delay to those researches which were to 
immortalize the name of Ramsay. 

In 1894 Ramsay was 42 years of age. His work was already con- 
siderable in amount and his reputation solidly established, but he 
could not yet be called a celebrity. In possession of scientific knowl- 
edge as profound as it was extensive and varied, a penetrating mind 
with broad vision, a philosopher mindful of the general movement 
of the sciences, and eager to solve the mysteries of nature, free from 
all dogmatism and with mind open to even the most daring concep- 
tions, an experimenter of finished technique, an enthusiastic spirit, 
Ramsay was ready for epoch-making discoveries. Given a favorable 
occasion, his genius would be fully equal to the task. Here is the 
occasion. 

As often happens in scientific research, a chance observation may 
lead to the most unexpected results. Lord Rayleigh, who for sev- 
eral years had pursued with meticulous care the determination of 
the density of the principal simple gases (hydrogen, oxygen, nitro- 
gen), noticed that the density of the nitrogen extracted from the 
air through absorption by other known gases was always greater 
than that of chemical nitrogen, coming from different sources— 
oxides of nitrogen, ammonia, urea, etc. The difference affected the 
third decimal and did not exceed one-half per cent, but it was cer- 
tainly more than experimental error. 

Three hypotheses could explain this irregularity. The atmospheric 
nitrogen might be constituted in part of complex molecules of nitro- 
gen comparable to the oxygen compound called ozone. Conversely, 
in the chemical nitrogen a certain proportion of the molecules might 
be dissociated into free atoms. But the density of neither of the 
gases, after being kept for eight months, underwent any change, and 
the permanent existence of condensed nitrogen or of dissociated 
nitrogen (atomic nitrogen) would scarcely be likely. Lord Ray- 
leigh, who had at first accepted these explanations, rejected them to 
adopt the third hypothesis, according to which the amospheric nitro- 
gen is constituted of a chemical nitrogen mixed with an unknown gas 
of greater density. Being consulted by Lord Rayleigh, Ramsay was 
of the same opinion, and the two scholars at once united their efforts 
to isolate the mysterious gas whose existence was thus revealed. 

It is interesting to recall here that in the fundamental experiments 
in which Cavendish, a century before, had established the formation 
of nitric acid by the prolonged action of electric sparks on a mixture 
of oxygen and nitrogen in moisture, the celebrated English chemist . 
had noted that even after a very long time there always remained 
after absorption of the oxygen in excess a small gaseous residue rep- 

12573°—21——35 


584 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


resenting about one one-hundred-and-twentieth of the volume of 
nitrogen. But the observation had passed unnoticed, and until the 
researches of Lord Rayleigh, the nitrogen in the air had been con- 
sidered as a simple gas, identical with “chemical nitrogen.” 

While Lord Rayleigh, taking up again the experiments of Caven- 
dish, verified the fact that atmospheric nitrogen does indeed leave, 
after the action of the oxygen and the spark, a residue which could 
not be overlooked, Ramsay attacked the problem by a purely chemical 
method, that of absorbing the nitrogen by magnesium at red heat. 
The repeated action of this metal increased the density of the gas. 
From 14, its weight in relation to hydrogen, the density increased 
little by little to become fixed in the neighborhood of 20. What re- 
mained was a new gas, absolutely distinct from nitrogen, character- 
ized, aside from its density, by a peculiar spectrum very rich in lines 
in all regions and, a fact without precedent, by absolutely no ability 
to combine with any other substance whatsoever. 

At the British Association meeting at Oxford in 1894, at the 
memorable session of August 13, Lord Rayleigh and Ramsay an- 
nounced in turn that the nitrogen of the air is not pure nitrogen, and 
that it contains a small proportion of a gas more dense and much 
more inert, to which they gave, on account of its chemical inertness, 
the name of argon (« priv.; epyoo, energy). This communication 
caused a great sensation among the audience, and the daily press took 
up the matter at length. 

But chemists are generally conservative, and although the discovery 
was affirmed by two scholars so well qualified, many remained in- 
credulous. It was not certain that argon was a simple substance. 
The molecular weight, according to the density, being 40, it might be 
a form of nitrogen cyanide CN,; it was noticed also that a triatomic 
molecule of nitrogen N, would have a weight of 42, a figure not far 
from the one given above. 

A few months sufficed for Ramsay to clear up the question and 
dissipate all doubts. The comparison of the specific heats at a con- 
stant volume and at constant pressure shows an equally unexpected 
fact—that the molecule is monatomic, and consequently the new gas 
can only be an element. . 

There is never anything fundamentally new except that which 
could not be foreseen; that which is foreseen is implicitly contained, 
like the corollaries of a theorem, in that which is already within 
the domain of knowledge. To find in the air a new gas, and, in 
addition, one of absolute chemical inertness, is indeed a truly great 
discovery. It brought at once to the authors a deservedly great 
renown. Ramsay was not slow in adding to it through other re- 
searches not less surprising. And it was here again that a fortunate 


; 
4 
4 
4 
q 
4 


SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 535 


opportunity presented itself to him; he exploited it with admirable 
and masterful decision. 

Early in 1895 Ramsay learned, through a letter from Sir Henry 
Miers, that Hillebrand, chemist in the United States Geological Sur- 
vey, had observed, while treating a uraniferous mineral, cleveite, 
with boiling sulphuric acid, the giving off of a gas which appeared 
to him to be nitrogen. The effect produced on Ramsay by this news 
was entirely characteristic of his scientific temperament. Many 
chemists, while finding the observation interesting, would have put 
off the study of the subject until later, when they might have more 
leisure. Ramsay, on receipt of the letter from Sir Henry Miers, 
called the laboratory aid and dispatched him immediately to the 
shops of the mineral merchants of London to buy all the cleveite 
that he could find. The cleveite arrived toward noon; before night 
it had been treated and the gas collected. During the two following 
days the known gases, except argon, which it had been expected 
would be found, were eliminated and the residue introduced into a 
spectrum tube. The spectrum of argon was not observed. There 
were few lines; one of these—yellow—was very brilliant. It was 
thought at first to be the line of sodium, present, perhaps, in the cor- 
roded electrodes. But Ramsay laughed at the idea; he was not in 
the habit of using dirty spectrum tubes, and, besides, he had made 
the tube himself. A comparison spectrum of sodium was observed 
simultaneously. The two lines were distinct and in no way super- 
posed. It was then beyond doubt that it was a new gas, and the 
hypothesis was advanced that it might be helium. 

Helium was that element, still unknown on the earth, whose ex- 
istence in the sun was known through a spectroscopic observation 
carried out by the French astronomer Janssen at the time of the solar 
eclipse of the year 1868, and the subsequent suggestions of the En- 
glish physicists Frankland and Lockyer. Was this new gas of Ram- 
say’s helium, or was it not? The answer was not long in coming. 
The spectrum tube was sent to Sir William Crookes, who measured 
with great care the wave length of the yellow line and found it 
identical with’ that of the solar line of helium. Scarcely a week had 
passed since Ramsay had received the letter from Sir Henry Miers. 

At the general reunion of the Chemical Society in March, 1895, 
the discovery of terrestrial helium in the gases from cleveite was an- 
nounced. Its molecular weight was 4, and a study of the specific 
heat indicated that the molecule was monatomic, like that of argon, 
which it also resembled through its complete chemical inertness. 

During the two following years Ramsay hunted carefully for 
other sources of argon and helium. Argon and helium were found 
in certain mineral waters, those of Cauterets among others; to-day 


536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


we know that they exist in all subterranean waters and gases. Fur- 
thermore, helium can be derived from a series of rare minerals; this 
observation was of great interest in what followed, after it was dis- 
covered that the same gas was given off in the disintegration of 
radium, as we shall see later on. 

Their resistance to any combination assigned to argon and helium 
a place apart among the elements, and they did not fit in any of the 
groups of Mendeleeff’s table. Ramsay boldly suggested that they con- 
stituted the first two known terms of a new group, characterized by a 
valence of zero. Secure in observed analogies in the other groups of 
the periodic system, Ramsay, in a communication to the meeting of the 
British Association in Toronto in 1897 with the suggestive title, 
“An Undiscovered Gas,” predicted the existence of at least one other 
inert element, situated between helium and argon, near fluorine and 
having an atomic weight not far from 20. 

Before another year had passed, not only had Ramsay’s prediction 
been realized, but more, in collaboration with Morris Travers, two 
other elementary inert gases had been discovered, whose places he 
also fixed in the periodic system, near bromine and iodine, with the 
neighboring atomic weights of 82 and 130. 

Ramsay submitted to a close examination different thermal waters, 
such as those of minerals and of meteorites, without being able to 
discover any of the gases which he sought. Their presence in all the 
subterranean gases was to be demonstrated later,’ thanks to the use 
of a method of fractionating by means of cooled charcoal inaugurated 
by Sir James Dewar.* 

But if the three gases to be discovered really existed, ought they 
not to be found in considerable proportion in the atmospheric nitro- 
gen along with argon? 

One hundred cubic centimeters of liquid air having been reduced 
through spontaneous evaporation to several cubic centimeters, Ram- 
say vaporized them in a gasometer, then eliminated from it the 
oxygen and nitrogen by appropriate means. The gaseous residue 
thus prepared furnished the spectrum of argon with, in addition, a 
yellow line and a very brilliant green line. Besides, the density was 
a little greater than that of pure argon; the residue examined was 
then argon mixed with a certain proportion of a heavier gas. 

In order to isolate this gas, Ramsay aided by Travers, prepared 15 
liters of argon, a task requiring several months, and liquified it by 

2 Charles Moureu, ‘“‘ Recherches sur les gaz rares des sources thermales; leurs enseigne- 
ments concernant la radioactivité et la physique du globe,” Journal de Chimie 
physique, t. 11, no. 1, p. 63-152, 1918. Charles Moureu and Adolph Lepape, ‘‘ Les gaz 
rares des Grisous,” Annales de Chimie, 9° s., t. 4 et 5, 1915-1916. 

8 Charles Moureu and Adolphe Lepape, loc. cit. 


4Separation directe, sans liquefaction, des gaz les plus volatils de lair (Ann, Chim, 
Phys. 8° serie, t. 3, p. 12; 1904. 


sfearg 


SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 537 


cooling with liquid air. The clear liquid obtained was submitted to 
a fractional evaporation very skillfully conducted, with the purpose 
of separating the gases more or less volatile than argon. The success 
was complete. 

The first breaking up furnished a light gas, about ten times more 
dense than hydrogen, and characterized by a magnificent spectrum 
with brilliant lines in the red and the yellow. Ramsay called it neon. 
It is moreover accompanied by a certain proportion of helium, pres- 
ent also in the air, and from which it can be separated by the use 
of liquid hydrogen (—253°), which solidifies the neon and leaves 
the helium in a gaseous state. 

The end products of the distillation of liquified argon retained the 
two other new gases, which could however be separated by liquifac- 
tion and fractionating. Ramsay called them crypton and xenon; 
their densities in relation to hydrogen were 41 and 65. 

For the three new gases, neon, crypton, and xenon, the study of 
the specific heats led, as for helium and argon, to a monatomic mole- 
cule. They are likewise chemically inert.. Their atomic weights 20, 
82, and 130 were found to occupy exactly the places indicated by the 
classification of Mendeleeff. 

Thus, in the atmospheric air, which during more than a century 
had been believed to be perfectly known, Ramsay had succeeded in 
the four years from 1894 to 1898, in isolating a complete natural 
group of simple gases. Indeed a splendid achievement. Striking 
proof of the fundamental truth comprehended in the periodic law. 
Witness, just as noteworthy, of the scientific faith and the ability in 
experimentation of this master. Nearly all the apparatus had to be 
invented, and Ramsay also had to construct most of it himself. Only 
those who have handled small quantities of gas and have prepared 
absolutely pure gases, giving spectra entirely free from foreign lines, 
are able to understand all the technical difficulties of such a work. 

A little before the discovery of crypton, Ramsay thought he had 
isolated another element in the atmospheric argon; it had the same 
density as argon, but its spectrum was entirely different; he called 
it metargon and described several principal lines. Metargon was 
not, however, a new element; it was recognized that the lines indi- 
cated were due to traces of carbonic oxide, which occurs as an im- 
purity in argon. Other chemists were working on the same problem, 
and Ramsay, too much hurried, had insufficiently purified his argon. 
I will cite Ramsay himself in this connection: 

Should we under such circumstances regret the publication of an error? It 
seems to me that an occasional error should be excusable. No one can be 


infallible; and besides, in these conjectures one has always a large number of 
good friends who promptly correct the inaccuracy. 


538 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


It is certain that anyone may be deceived; but it is not anyone 
indeed who would have been capable of discovering crypton and 
xenon in the air, which contains in volume 1 in 20,000,000 of the first 
and 1 in 170,000,000 of the second. 

This research on the rare gases of the atmosphere will remain a 
perfect model of original research. And if there was anything to be 
admired more than the ability in experimentation and the scientific 
penetration displayed, it was the energy and persevering ardor, 
qualities doubtless less brilliant, but which in this kind of work were 
absolutely indispensable. 

Another question, in this connection, could not fail to present itself 
to Ramsay’s mind. Are there not in the same group of inert gases, 
noble gases, as he liked to call them, other elements, heavier than 
xenon as predicted by the periodic system, or lighter than helium, 
such as nebulium, whose presence is probable in the nebule, and 
coronium, which appears to exist in the solar corona ? 

We will recall in passing that beside the inert gases, Armand 
Gautier recognized in the atmospheric air an appreciable proportion 
of a gas lighter than helium and which was not other than hydrogen, 
whose production proposed a most suggestive geochemical problem. 

Ramsay busied himself then in the search for new rare gases. With 
Watson he examined the lightest gases in the atmosphere in the 
hope of obtaining a gas less dense than helium, but without success. 
He was not more fortunate in the systematic study, undertaken with 
Richard Moore, of the distillation products of an enormous mass of 
liquid air (120 tons), put at his disposal by George Claude. Ramsay 
arrived at the conclusion that if the air contains gases heavier than 
xenon, the proportion of them is extremely small and does not exceed 
one twenty-fifth of one-billionth. 

The discovery of the rare gases had excited universal enthusiasm. 
Physicists and chemists far and near wished to study these new ele- 
ments; and it is interesting, for the glory of Ramsay, to indicate 
briefly the principal results that have issued from this study. 

Some, interested especially in the problem of affinity, sought, but 
in vain, to arouse chemical activity which they supposed to be dor- 
mant in the rare gases. Others, on the other hand, sought for them 
in natural media. Following a systematic study of a great number 
of subterranean gases (gas from thermo-mineral sources, volcanic 
gas; fire-damp), some simple conclusions have been formulated :* 

(1) All the natural gaseous compounds contain the five rare gases, 
and certain of them contain appreciable quantities of helium, some as 
much as 6 per cent (thermal gas of Maiziéres, Cote-d’Or), and even 10 

5 Troost and Ouvrard; C. R., t. 121, p. 394; 1895. Berthelot, C. R., t. 120, pp. 581-660 


and 316, 1895; t. 124, p. 113, 1897. 
6 Charles Moureu and Adolphe Lepape, loc. cit. 


SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 539 


per cent (thermal gas of Santenay, Céte-d’Or). (2) The quantitative 
relation crypton-argon has practically the same value in all natural 
mixtures, the atmospheric air included; the relation crypton-xenon, 
different from the preceding, is likewise constant, as is also the rela- 
tion xenon-argon, and as also appear the relations of these three 
gases with neon; it is possible to explain the constancy of the rela- 
tions by the chemical inertness and the analogous properties of these 
gases, which have thus been able, since the time of the original 
nebulae, to come through free and mixed together and without their 
quantitative relations being sensibly changed, all the cataclysms of 
astronomy and geology. (8) Helium, it is true, accompanies the 
other members of the group on all their voyages, but it escapes all 
proportionality; and it could not be otherwise, inasmuch as only 
helium is produced continually from radioactive substances, and 
these are unequally divided in the different strata. 

You see, gentlemen, what unexpected and weighty problems have 
been brought up by Ramsay’s discovery. What an exceptional des- 
tiny is that of these five gases, whose chemical inertness has assured 
to them, since the beginning of time, an eternal inviolability, and has 
thus made of them, like the demigods, immortal witnesses of all the 
physical phenomena of the earth and of the evolution of the spheres! 

For what practical applications are the new elements destined? 
Lighting tests in neon have proved very encouraging. Argon is used 
in incandescent lamps. And above all—Ramsay himself made the 
proposition—balloons have been inflated with helium, and by this 
means made noninflammable.’ 

What a prospect for aeronautics! How far we are from the 
famous solar spectrum line of Janssen, found again by Ramsay in 
the gas from cleveite!) Other uses will follow for helium as well as 
for the related gases; their career is still only at the beginning. New 
example, among a thousand, of the value of purely speculative re- 
search! All scientific discoveries, however exclusively contemplative 
their concern at first might appear, can not fail to lead sooner or later 
to practical applications. Would that the directors of our affairs 
could realize this fact which carries with it so much benefit and so 
much hope, and which also holds for them duties and responsibilities 
in the eyes of the country which has put its future in their hands. 
Could they but understand that science is power, that science is 
wealth! Let them encourage, with all their power, scientific re- 
search. Let them understand that learned men can not live differ- 
ently from other men, and that-they also have the right to a normal 
and honorable existence. Let them generously endow laboratories. 
Let them grant means for specially interesting studies which may be 


7 Cottrell, ‘‘ Fabrication industrielle de l’helium,’”’ Chimie et Industrie, 1919. 


540 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


indicated to them. Let them take under their protection the young 
men of talent whose gifts should belong to the Nation, and whose 
development would bring to it glory and prosperity. Let them be 
able, in a word, to see in the budget for science a productive expendi- 
ture, a veritable investment with large returns. Then will they 
assure to research workers the means for their study, to learned men 
the possibility of giving their lives to science. 

We now come to the year 1902. Pierre Curie and Mme. Curie 
had just obtained radium, the magnificent completion of an admir- 
able work begun by Mme. Curie in 1897,.a little after the discovery 
of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896. It was a logical out- 
come that Ramsay was attracted toward these most interesting re- 
searches. The new domain thus opened to science had as yet been 
explored only by physicists; it seemed to him immediately that chem- 
istry also could and ought to enter on the scene. He entered boldly 
on the subject; he was to make conquests in it of vast importance. 

Frederick Soddy had come from Montreal, where he had been as- 
sisting Sir Ernest Rutherford in his beautiful work on thorium. The 
curious fact had been discovered that a material substance was con- 
tinually given off from thorium; it was given the name of emanation. 
Actinium and radium also ‘gave off an emanation. These new sub- 
stances were evidently of a gaseous nature; and, with all the skill 
already acquired in the manipulation of small quantities of a gas, 
Ramsay found himself very well fitted to make a study’of them. In 
collaboration with Soddy he tried to obtain the spectrum of the eman- 
ation of radium. As the amount of emanation which comes from 
even a relatively large quantity of radium is extremely small it was 
necessary to devise a special spectrum tube. It consisted of a thermo- 
metric capillary tube with an electrode made of a platinum wire 
soldered at the end, the second electrode being mercury, which was 
put in in advance with the very small ‘quantity of emanation with the 
aid of a pump. Traces of impurities prevented seeing the spectrum 
of the emanation which it was not expected to see until later; but 
what was the surprise of Ramsay and Soddy when, after the passage 
of sparks through the gas for some time, they saw appear, little by 
little, the lines of helium! 

Helium! Still helium, a kind of Zezt motiv in the scientific life of 
Ramsay. And an element produced by another element! The magni- 
tude of the discovery immediately appeared. For the first time was 
beheld the transmutation of one element to another! It was entirely 
revolutionary. Is it necessary to add that the scientific public did 
not at first believe and that it would continue to doubt for a long 
time? The helium had come from anywhere except from the emana- 
tion: From the glass, from the mercury, from the platinum, from the 
walls of the pump. Was not the indestructibility of atoms the dogma 


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SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 54] 


of dogmas? Since the time of the alchemists no one has believed in 
transmutation. Transmutation was the most extravagant of utopias. 
And yet to-day, but a few years later, who doubts that the atom has 
contradicted its etymology and disowned its name? Who doubts 
that the atom of radium disintegrates spontaneously and that the 
emanation and helium are the products of this disintegration? Who 
doubts that there is a complete genealogy of radium, going from 
uranium to lead, and that the differences in mass are due definitely 
to the expulsion of particles of helium gas thrown out like ballast 
in order to lighten the atoms for the beginning of a new existence? 
Who doubts finally, since the beautiful work of Sir J. J. Thomson, 
Sir E. Rutherford, and some other physicists, that the atom with its 
electrons and other constituent elements, is a very complicated 
organism, in fact, an entire world? It is no use for people to erect 
barriers between the known and the unknown; they will fall 
some day under the continuous pressure of original research; and 
happily there are many that have already thus been overturned on 
the paths of science. 

The discovery of Ramsay and Soddy was not slow in being taken 
up; the formation of helium was demonstrated as coming from acti- 
nium by Debierne, from thorium and uranium by Soddy, from polo- 
nium by Mme. Curie and Debierne, and from ionium by Boltwood. 

It is fitting to recall, before leaving this subject, that Rutherford 
had previously expressed the idea that the particles “ given off by the 
radioactive elements ought to be made up of atoms of helium.” 

This destruction of radioactive atoms, in which Ramsay was the 
first to see born helium atoms, had the effect of liberating an enormous 
quantity of energy, capable of effecting immediately varied chemical 
reactions—the breaking up of water, of carbonic gas, of hydrochloric 
acid gas, of ammonia gas, of the substance of glass, etc. The emana- 
tion from radium, in its disintegration, gives off for each cubic centi- 
meter a quantity of heat equal to that furnished by the explosion of 
34 cubic meters of the explosive mixture of oxygen and hydrogen 
gases. Ramsay supposed that if a sufficient amount of emanation of 
radium was put in actual contact with atoms, the energy liberated by 
the decomposition of the emanation would be able to break off some 
of them. In common with Cameron, he announced that he had thus 
obtained lithium, starting with copper, and carbon, starting with 
thorium and other elements of the same group. There has been and 
still is a great deal of skepticism regarding these transmutations. 
Mme. Curie and Mile. Gledisch having repeated the experiments 
with copper, the results were negative. On the other hand, Ramsay 
carried out experiments without the use of emanation and they gave 
no trace of lithium. Continued researches ought to settle the debate. 


542 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


The experiments of Ramsay and Cameron had been carried out on 
aqueous solutions of metallic salts. In the case of copper, the gases 
derived from the liquid after the elimination of the oxygen and 
hydrogen coming from the decomposition of the water, gave the 
spectrum of argon, without any line of helium. On the other hand, 
in treating distilled water with the emanation, neon was obtained, 
with a trace of helium, but no argon. These results also were con- 
tested. 

Ramsay, being asked one day by Richard Moore if he would try 
the experiments again, made a typical response: “ No,” he said, “TI 
do not believe it worth while. I can only find again lithium and neon} 
and for me to obtain the same results again would not be a confirma- 
tion. I will leave to others the task of repeating the researches.” 

The extreme interest of the subject led him to expect that new 
studies would be undertaken by skilled experimenters having at their 
disposal sufficient quantities of radium. 

Another problem, in some degree the reciprocal of the preceding, 
naturally presented itself: If the disintegration of heavy elements 
can lead to light elements, would it not be possible, by an inverse 
method, to condense light atoms into heavy atoms and thus realize 
in all its fullness the dream of the alchemists? Ramsay was not 
afraid to take up the subject. Collie and Patterson, having sub- 
mitted the glass of an ordinary empty tube to cathodic bombardment, 
had announced the production of helium, which had been formed by 
the condensation of four atoms of hydrogen. Ramsay confirmed this 
result, and, going further, found that if the hydrogen is moist—that 
is, if it is accompanied by oxygen—there will be, moreover, forma- 
tion of neon, created by the addition of the atom of helium (4) to the 
atom of oxygen (16). It seemed to him, therefore, that under analo- 
gous conditions sulphur would lead to argon and selenium to crypton. 

Here, as well, the question should be taken up again. Its breadth, 
perhaps, surpasses that of all the others. Ramsay will have the honor 
of having opened up the new field, thanks to his incomparable talent 
in experimentation, as well as to his boldness and the independence of 
his scientific conceptions. 

These are, in fact, Ramsay’s most pronounced characteristics. They 
are shown again, and in a most brilliant manner, in another work on 
the radium emanation which he carried out in 1910 with the assist- 
ance of Whitlaw Gray. According to the theory of disintegration, 
the atom of emanation results from the loss of a helium atom by an 
atom of radium. If the atomic weight of radium is 226 and that of 
helium 4, the weight of an atom of emanation ought theoretically to 
be 222. Emanation, whose resistance to all combination had, more- 
over, been shown, came thus to occupy in the column of rare gases in 


SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 543 


the periodic system the place predicted for a homolog of xenon. 
Ramsay wished to prove this by experiment. And what an experi- 
ment! The volume of emanation at his disposal at any one time 
never exceeded five one-thousandths of a cubic millimeter (much 
less than the smallest head of a pin), and to determine the atomic 
weight it was necessary to weigh this infinitesimal volume of gas. 
A modification of the microbalance of Steel and Grant was con- 
structed, whose sensitiveness attained several millionths of a milli- 
gram. The skill shown in preparing, purifying, and weighing the 
minute quantities of emanation was truly wonderful; and it was this 
work more than all the others which showed Ramsay’s marvelous ex- 
perimental talent. ‘The result justified the effort. The mean of five 
determinations gave the number 223 for the atomic weight of radium 
emanation. A full and complete verification of the theoretical pre- 
dictions, which Debierne also confirmed by an entirely different 
method (diffusion) 

The brilliance of his work had brought to Ramsay the highest dis- 
tinctions not only in his own country but all over the world. 
Academies and learned societies hastened to open their ranks to him. 
Our Academy of Sciences, which had elected him a correspondent in 
1895, named him an associate in 1910. He was also an associate mem- 
ber of our Academy of Medicine. In the year 1904, the Academy of 
Stockholm awarded him the Nobel prize in chemistry. 

One of the characteristic traits of Ramsay’s personality was his 
enthusiasm, which he communicated to all those who worked under 
his direction, and the impression which he produced on his students, 
even during a very brief contact, remained ineffaceable. Friendly 
and patient with all, to “do well,” according to his own expression, 
was all that was necessary to become his friend. 

Ramsay was a remarkable teacher with an elegant and picturesque 
manner of expressing himself, impulsive, clear, concise, and with the 
great charm of simplicity. In his lessons he did not hesitate at times 
to use the most advanced teachings; he was the first in England to 
introduce the works of Raoult, Arrhenius, and Van’t Hoff. 

Everything which lives is in a progress of evolution. The real 
life of an experimental science like chemistry is in progress and 
discovery. On this subject, Ramsay was of the opinion that he 
wanted original research to occupy early as great a place as possible 
in the work of a student. He distrusted examinations such as are 
usually held to judge candidates, which were too often dependent 
on chance. He feared especially that they might result in. unjust 
and unfortunate eliminations capable of discouraging a student in 
his choice of a vocation. The professor who has followed the 
student during several years in the course and especially in the labor- 


544. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 


atory seemed to him to be better fitted than anyone to appreciate 
his true value. Ramsay always forcefully maintained these ideas 
and their logical consequences. The fact is, although, to be sure, 
other factors enter into it, that the future of science depends in a 
large part on the scientific aptitude of those who cultivate it. The 
choice of future scholars—and by this word we mean principally 
the future masters, the future leaders—takes on, then, a capital im- 
portance. Great then is the responsibility of those who have charge 
of making this necessary selection. They ought to realize the essen- 
tial fact that knowledge is good but power is better. Far be it from 
us indeed to deny the utility of much learning, of being well posted 
in every subject, as are the very learned; but this would be sterile 
and encumbering from the point of view of original research, sole 
source of progress, if there were lacking to exploit it a clear intellect, 
a sure judgment, and that ensemble of qualities which constitutes 
what is called “esprit de finesse.” The true scholar, the real origi- 
nator of scientific progress, is not the one who knows, it is the one who 
acts, who creates. “‘ Better,’ Montaigne has said, “a good brain 
than a full brain.” The former has that which is called potentiality, 
latent force, virtual power, productive, and creative energy, which 
allows it on occasions to accomplish original work; the latter, in 
the absence of these necessary gifts, would have access only to the 
domains already largely explored, where it would, however, still be 
able to do useful work. Both have their places to fill; but the gen- 
eral welfare as well as the interest of the specialist demands that 
each be in his place— the right man in the right place.” To keep 
this ideal in view ought to be the constant thought of those on whom 
has devolved the difficult réle of arbiters. . 

In our time of general reorganization, when all institutions and 
all methods are undergoing revision, it is to be regretted that the 
great voice of Ramsay is not more listened to in this important 
matter of teaching. 

Ramsay wrote but few didactic works. His little treatise on 
“Modern Chemistry,” which has been translated into French, is a 
brief but substantial account of the principles of chemical philos- 
ophy. The same qualities are found in the highest degree in all 
Ramsay’s writings. They are noted especially in several disserta- 
tions in which he developed his own ideas, and whose titles alone 
are enough to indicate their originality: “The Electron Considered 
as an Element,” “ Element and Energy,” “ Helium in Nature,” “ Prob- 
lems Presented by Inorganic Chemistry,” etc. 

Ramsay was a polyglot and spoke fluently French and German. 
At the International Congress of Applied Chemistry held in Rome 
in 1906 he gave in French a lecture on “The Purification of Drain 


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SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY—MOUREU. 545 


Water,” a subject far enough away from the matters of pure science 
with which he was supposed to be entirely occupied. 

He came willingly into our country. He loved it and counted 
there many friends who have many charming letters from him full 
of a natural simplicity. We have also the remembrance of the excel- 
lent lectures which he gave here on his discoveries. 

Before the war he had also many connections in Germany and 
was there the object of many flattering attentions. During the cele- 
bration of the centenary of the University of Berlin in 1910 the 
delegates of the universities of the whole world were invited for 
the principal ceremony. Ramsay represented the University of 
London. When the Kaiser entered the room with his whole fol- 
lowing, having perceived Ramsay, he stopped the cortege and went 
out of his way to take his hand. 

“The soul of Ramsay,” our colleague, Paul Sabatier, wrote in a 
beautiful study which he has consecrated to him, “the soul of 
Ramsay could not be conquered by such homage, and in many cir- 
cumstances before the war where I have been able to see him from 
near by, I have been sure of his deep distrust of Germany and of 
its inordinate ambitions.” This testimony can be completed by the 
well-known fact that Ramsay was one of the most resolute partisans 
of the “ Entente Cordiale.” 

German science, which he had seen at first hand, had never im- 
pressed him, and he passed on it the severest judgment. In the fine 
response which he addressed in October, 1914, to the manifesto of 
93 German scholars, these lines are found: “* * * Some Ger- 
man individuals have attained the highest summits and merit uni- 
versal admiration. But in spite of these brilliant exceptions, it can 
be said that originality has never been the characteristic of the Ger- 
man race; their special function has been to exploit inventions and 
to put to work the discoveries of others * * *;” and further, 
facing the necessary hypothesis of the complete destruction which 
the German power ought to suffer for the security of the world, he 
added: “* * * Would the progress of science be retarded? I 
do not think so. The greatest works in scientific thought are not 
due to representatives of the Germanic race; moreover, the early ap- 
plications of science do not come from them. As far as we are able 
to perceive, it seems that a restrictive measure on their activities 
would only have the effect of delivering the world from a deluge 
of mediocrities.” At the beginning of the war, during the tragic 
days of 1914, Ramsay was at Havre, where he attended with Lady 
Ramsay and his son the congress of the French Association for the 
Advancement of Science, presided over by M. Armand Gautier. He 
delivered a discourse at the opening session and was present at the 


546 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919, 


first session of the section of chemistry. But, visibly, his thought 
was absent. The news became each day more alarming. After 
Wednesday, the 29th, when he perceived war imminent, as fixed in 
the criminal plan of Germany, he was not seen again at the Congress. 

Ramsay saw immediately all the import and how much was at 
stake in the formidable conflict. Civilization, once more in a struggle 
with barbarity, had to repulse the most redoubtable assault she had 
ever withstood. It was necessary to conquer or submit to enslave- 
ment. 

From the beginning of hostilities, Ramsay, with his ardent patri- 
otism, threw himself into the conflict. He fought with all the means 
in his power, through research in the laboratory and through his 
original suggestions, by pen and word, which he made the auxiliaries 
of his most indisputable authority. Of him also could be employed 
the famous phrase, “ Je fais la guerre.” It was through his persever- 
ing efforts chiefly that cotton was, too late perhaps, declared contra- 
band of war. He died in full activity, 63 years old, while his genius 
was still so rich in promise for science and for humanity, brought 
down by an incurable disease that carried him off in a few months. 
Our unanimous regret is that the great joy was not given him of 
assisting in the complete victory of the Allies, a victory which he 
believed in implicitly, and also with all the ardor of his faith in the 
destinies of our immortal countries, and in the final triumph of 
morality over crime, of incontestible right over brute force. 

The premature death of Ramsay is for science an irreparable loss. 
In his loss a powerful beacon light is extinguished. This great in- 
vestigator explored chemistry as a conqueror, and the progress which 
it owes to him are the strides of a giant. Ramsay served and was an 
honor to humanity, and he has brought to his native land incom- 
parable renown. He was great not only in his genius and scientific 
enthusiasm, but also in the elevation of his soul, absorbed in the ideal, 
and in the greatness of his character. He will live in the memory of 
mankind, and posterity will keep aloft the name of Ramsay. 


INDEX. 


A. 
Page. 
Abbot, Dr. C. G., Assistant Secretary of the Institution..______________ xi, 
Xii, 2, 3, 12, 20, 63, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89, 111, 113, 114, 120 
234 OUD OU Soh ECONO TRG U3 (ea ype et dean eS AAI A lpia EOS ee cub 20, 120 
SSN ENOVDBAIS LEA TERS Nein cai a ge REN RN a NR 16, 31 
Aboriginal Americans, On the race history and facial characteristics of 
SUS) UC Da) eg Ng A NA AC A I I a 427 
cfs Jie TTELU Sy yh AY apt Lo apa et eR MAN SR Ao A Et ol nl xi, xii 
Administrative assistant to the Secretary______________ Xii, 15, 25, 87, 111, 113 
ccc DD as ea i tA ee Neto a ee a rR a i 53 
Aeronautics, National Advisory Committee for__________-_-___ 3 
mouiean. EXPedition ——— ooo iT Te Lu a ps PRS i ey Nc ee =) 
Agriculture, Secretary of (member of the Institution)___________-_____ xi 
Paneta tee COU MCh ON, TMUnerh Ober (2 ko noun ce wns le Oh es 15, 28 
SLE Va kGin id Bg gull kota apni tet em so eau to hae dora he eae nara N xii 
(The Division of Insects in the United States Na- 
GLO MA EUS UNIN ye ene ie es (ee Greed ed coe es Sag eae 367 
A SITET oi vag Bo ae en pat ar diag ves att ei aa xii, 2, 20, 81, 82, 88, 119 
AN (SSE GUS eed OU Op ca Na she ha har id Ue A PN A 0 EO 36 
SMUG US GES OY Ses OY a OYA A 0 teh i BME Cale Sar UN NM A lp 
PRIME COI MEM STOICA Ty ASSOCIA LLOL rn ater mies ray NEAT Ste NE 23 
Je) OO) a up ey aan eeu oe Rg 138, 105 
American Indian, Museum of, Heye Foundation________________________ 31, 53 
PME LIE MMSE) CONSTESS OF een non ero marie ee 13 
AU AIS Of) The AStrOpiysical ODSerValorycs 2 eee ee re LSP L 
Anthropological collections, National Museum___________-_-_--_ 30 
ATO OVOLOLical “works in ery and) BOlWias oo 22 ee eS 10 
Archeological research in Palestine, The opportunity for American (Mont- 
GH GN EH GAY) ) is a AS iy, ol eb ae Mee IN Naa 433 
Lae SEES TS ST OGLE SI a el a Se et aaa ae Mr AW) 31 
SMASH EY STS edhe ML BUG A MY i th Se 0 re ye it ee ao apa 8, 120 
SSIStALt SCChebaby, OF  UMer MNSENL GION eee ta ema ta emer ene xi, 
xii, 2, 3, 12, 20, 63, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89, 111, 118, 114, 120 
ASLrOpuysicnl ObServacory io. ee ee beg hleig baipiies Weasel bays ed LL 
ANTS Olas Ghee tte a ceaeeek a) Suh BE Tee Ae ES 13 
Calama a Chilemstatrome 2 i vw ee Ee 20, 85 
TIT Ore A di soe al a Ng a 93 
Mount Wilson, California, station____________ 20, 82 
ToC E4 KON | By Mle a eee UA SU aR SES Nia 79 
South American expedition__________________ 82 
WOK OE CAG SVC TL fi SU na a ile Oe Ne es 79 
Attorney General (member of the Institution) _---____________________ xi 
PAN OTE A CONUS tite = ieee rete diy Pah Nh De oe ee a eae alae 111 


548 INDEX. 


Page 
ASVOTYy: LUC ss Site 8 hee a ae a Td ee ey EN ee Se 4, 105 
A VELY; ECOD ELE SS CUE OR case ak ES i 2 aa ee re pa cca On eee 5, 105 
Aztec Spring. FUGUES Sake 22 SS PN ie Ee ee Sp ev Sneed eae na Ree 1% 
B. 
Bacon, Mrs. ‘Virginia. Purdy,) bequest-----=2 2. 4 ee 8,4 
Bacon, Walter Rathpone, Scholarships: -- = 2. nae ee ee eo ee ee 4 
BIT; | SPONGE Hee ee ee ae ee en ee es eNO A ee 22 
MESSI E, AN: [yy ie ee al SS Su el ee ee ee en ie eee xii 
Baker: Hons Eve way Ly ee Ye EA A ia Ale gh RAH ON ge OM dag Pe 19, 65 
Baker, Newton Diehl, Secretary of War (member of the Institution) ___ xi 
‘Barnes: Jie se Russe oe ee se ne es Nine ia a oe ees ee 68 
HPyeLTIIOSS,, Maven | CO Cr IM a ae agg ee at cs Se eae 35 
d BST gl SCH a eal Dy gel are Wb ana Sra ER alee ea ahah Mehl Aco at eit Ny ile Ae, xii, 19, 65 
Bassler, Dr, he Sale oe TS a ee Ae ee Kise 
Battle map, Gen Pershing icici. erring [ee ee Ee ae we i 15, 30 
MCCS ONS, Das Whe Bibs ae ka) es eee Eh od Be a Le xii 
‘Bell; Dr Alexander Graham) (regent) #..00 25 ee 2a ae xi, 2, 108, 109, 110 
a BY SU KOY erste IRL DET OO AE SE NT NOSES A AE UE rN Aa MANILLA LPN a Rat ute xii 
Benjamin, Dr. Marcus, editor, National Museum________________________ xii 
(Richard Rathbun) 5! 22a. Sap eee ee es 523 
TBO CUCSES 2 os Ae as Pci aa a See ata eer ey eh NOS hear Ue ania We 3; 
Biolosical eollections.wNa tional «Muse wry = ee eel 31 
Bissell, C. A. (Progress in national land reclamation in the United States)_ 497 
Board of regents of the Institution, annual meeting__._-_________________ 109 
executive committee, report ________ 105 
permanent committee, report_______ 111 
Procecdines) OF fos sre. wean ee 105 
MO8'S) ADI. PMTs Pk, Mca ah oe ON a Rte Eee i Le LR a ay xii, 46 
Bondfield,.Margvaret 2.2505 oo a a ee 36 
iRotanical ‘explorations in Wicuadore: 2 22s eke es ee ee 9 
Brigham, Albert Perry (Geographic education in America) _-—-_-_________ 487 
British Guiana, Fleral «aspects: of \(Hitcheack) 20 ss Sn ee 293 
COCK Sht | WE aula ak RSS Se a ee ee ee ee eee xi, 94 
‘Brooke, Magy. ‘Gene Joly Reis Pe a Lae lo oe ah ad 31 
Brookings, Robert: S.,:CRegent:) 6 ao as a ae ea a a pa 
TE TACO 414 AURIS © pls li eam ean RET Ta NRE Ug Pe ES ee Se SO Xii 
AEB y NA Gs Eig Se a area Se ee xii 
Burleson, Albert Sidney, Postmaster General (member of the Institution) x 
Bushnells David: Teg jis: se he ae a ee ee 49 
C. 
Calama, Chile, Astrophysical observing station at-____________---______ 20, 85 
Capital Audit Company=222— ee gains Lo lielh coop ree NS ee eR 105 
Catalogue of scientific literature, international_____________ xii, 1, 5, 18, 21, 95 
Chamberlain: tind: WrancesWeg2 22. ao tees oe ee 4, 15, 29, 32, 105 
Chancellor Of the WM SErew tO ee ee ee re xi, 109 
Chief: clerk of tHe USGS eee a ee eee ae sal 
Chief Justice of the United States (member of the Institution)_ xi, 1, 2, 109, 112 
Choate, Charles Ey; Jr: (CREgent) ee a ea nee eee xi, 2, 109 
Christian IBrothers, UY e eo 2S ea es 32 


Spidey ewe 


INDEX. 549 


i Page 
CCPL CEL Cay a Fe ud B09 £2 Hah Gre 2) 055) 6210) ee leap ee a lg UD wes TPE) ue 10 
(CH IGT SELAH BLO NIG Fo Ui ea NIN eel ecg se ei PRR tee erm Menon Tg 14, 21, 23 
TTS) O1 sh 5 (api Nl ee ap ko MRSS a ea ee I cats ALCON Ee 92 
-p STIEELER SPD LAS | ace ate a it lel ie aetna femme ne OE ty ee xii 
Clayton, H. H_-_____- fh eh A Ud Sy a Ae CrP tHe HEIR age rar ea WN 82, 84 
Seer hele). Wore i. S02) ae ee es ee ee a 32 
Cliff houses, Two types of southwestern (Fewkes) -_______-__-__-_ 421 
Cold in stimulating the growth of plants, The influence of (Coville)____ 281 
Collinge, Walter (The necessity of State action for the protection of wild 

TUES AM eit se Sa i tae ee a SP 349 
Collins-Garner French Congo Expedition___-_______________ se 8, 31 
Commerce, Secretary of (member of the Institution)._-_._____________ xi 
Berar Fess OF) SISCNICAMI SES! oa a see 31 
MAPA UD RON NE UD ASU UM GN ee Ny a ee ey 4,105 
Cook, O. F. (Milpa agriculture, a primitive tropical system)_____________ 307 
(EEL ALIAS COR GSTs aD IRS Se a A SN he Aca wi Oe NEY MT 12 
OLS TTS OE EBT eS 6 (wh) Ub a RSS RETNA Mapes OSSD, BUN al oe tape A xii, 12 
: (The influence of cold in stimulating the growth 

OF WV EAMtS)) ese EA a a a 281 
TYE) 1 o's sao ALT d eine ya Geer MSRP Es DMs 1 gett OO Pea mn ue. Melero AS 30 
SEY LEO gE FEN aR a OE NL ea ig VL NUNES OI (ep ee xii 
Pommeors of, she Mational, Museum... xii 
Curtis, Heber D. (Modern theories of the spiral nebulae)_______________ 123 
Czechoslovak people, The origin and beginnings of the (Matiegka)______ 471 

D. 

a Dro Wis deoeasredl Sy sree inom As bowrrt gel T eo es xii, 92 
Daniels, Josephus, Secretary of the Navy (member of the Institution) ___ xii 
Daughters of the American Revolution, national society, report__________ 1038 
Davidson, C.; Dyson, Sir F. W.; Eddington, Prof. A. S. (A determina- 

tion of the deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field, from, ob- 

servations made at the total eclipse of May 29, 1919)__-.- - 138 
“EDS TASP JES 20 IMDS UA So STE RUA NU IRR lice eae ce OS DY Alam ba ous 2 53 
ayROnENY TIE AIT plane: Ce i yk ae Ne 15 
Deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field, A determination of, 

from observations made at the total eclipse of May 29, 1919. (Dyson, 

TE CERES) So ENTIG WEP NE VAG SOWR) es ee ee Nad do iol ee 133 
Denmark, ; Ciibeve tt) allt gerne Lynponlogs Taal yer In picebi bie ero Xii 
EPBEES TAS 1M OYTO ene ARN CSS eek ate LI LE eg gas ee 2a 48 
Desert bird life in the Great Basin, Glimpses of (Oberholser) __________ 355 
Division of Insects in the United States National Museum, The (Aldrich)_ 867 
Dorsey, Harry W., chief clerk of the Institution____________________ xi 
Dyson, Sir F. W.; Eddington, Prof. A. S.; Davidson, C. (A determination 

of the deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field, from observa- 

tions made at the total eclipse of May 29, 1919)_-_-__-_--____-__ 133 

BK. 
AEE NTRS VB eae LOO nase thr de MERA Als PAI TES gE EID: 83, 84 
Eddington, Prof. A. S.; Dyson, Sir F. W.; Davidson, C. (A determination 

of the deflection of light by the sun’s gravitational field, from observa- 

tions made at the total eclipse of May 29, 1919)_-____________ 133 
Hady /donation, “PherAy oR and “H. Msn2s 22408 nee Sen htt, SOM td 115 


12573°—21——36 


550 INDEX. 
Page. 
Bids: Die! Mary teorstoms ste see vemnre waren eee eee fotereenerasi i 
Editors of the Institution and branches_2_------+------------__-__ xi, xii, 103 
Hiectron, Radium and the (Rutheriordye see sas ee eee 198 
Mutomology and" the War (howard) ee poeta ee 
SEA lishmMenty MEE NS MTG HS Omir ny eas ee mes ieee re ee ee ee Daj iy 
Ethnology, Bureau of American -~ ===. 22-2222 xt, “1, 5; 18, 17, 119 
collections____--_ ioe. 10. Bot! OWT BIRIO 52 
Rivera ed 20 918.905 2OURUNELS. 8 52, 93 
DEEN CALION SS 2 hls Soe enter “18,50, 102 
PEPONG reer ene savieles netgear iiniees 38 
Evans, William Pe Dens nanan MOitihodxe oa) slomor JomikOs 116 
Hixchanges; International 00 VILE Inds on WONEIE) AG TERIOR, 5; 10, te 
report-nsssseescser teens RD. [ae es! 
Executive Committee of the Board of Regents —_=+--+-++--=_ == SORES Meee a pe 5 
Teport 2 ULOMSB BOI) ES) AO 
MRP CUCL OTN 2 oe aR a er Pre rm tne er sinh han SNe OY RE See eneipereneerrs sleneee 8, 9, 120 
Exploration of Manchuria, The (Sowerby) =---=------=---~- FINO Bye Eto AS 
Exploration Pamphlet, Smithsonian’) 00/0) 7) 6 
Bexploratiionssvesear CHES ania Se Beaver ARO. SM oicuareleeis 2 eee 6 
Extinction of the mammoth, On the (Neuville) -------==++--=--==--_-+_-’ 327 

F, 

Fairbanks, Charles Warren (Regent) ~-~~-+) i222 2 2 dt .siqoog AsTolaogogyg 
Merris) RepresentaL ver Scove (RC Le Mb) Swe Mes ek, eee Wi) aN sean Ey aly 2 


Fewkes, Dr. J. Walter, Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology__ xii, 12, 14, 17, 55 


(Two types of southwestern cliff houses) _~__-—_-+ 421 
Finances of the Institution + sorisiant Wappen mals Ta ae teria aaiin2ok -ei@tmnad 
Floral aspects of British Guiana’ (Hitchcock) 24-e ess eee 8 iy St 293 
Food Administration, United. Statesseteciiin 20 1 ik goeutl 2 Sy noabigiga 
Foreign depositories of United States governmental documents ..2>_ sagaec Hol158 
Horeign exchange agencies 27-208 “yall Ro sud itive: Teter ons L428 Sbe0 AMET E oA6t 
Blo wike, Gerais t Osos se Cece ge ep EP INES AOR grees dele ee 18,49, 53 
HO Wile Leese Tate ba cheep 28 ES Pe a arsloviA . diel xii, 80 
Frachtenberg, Dr. Leo J_L_--+--_ + wiofintiver. 2 ate oft owed tik to Gen 46 
Freer; ;Gharles LA2e'-0¢ weNi So secilos lnjot set de abe SABITRTIORY » Bay 15 
®reer,GalleryeotvArt,£ Berner see ee oe eye 16, 185; 101 a5 


Functions and ideals of a national geological survey, The (Ransome) _.--'' 261 


Ga. 
Garner,..R. L_..-._~.-._--_.selaieal asl} ta _aaeih Sots ater ung 
General considerations, Secretary’s report —--~2 5) ue 24 wis ae i he § ete 2 
Geographic education in America (Brigham): 2 2+_-U4+_22_ fraimsheh s¢ 487 


Geographical distribution and migration,.A preliminary study of the rela- 
tion between, with special reference to the Palaearctic region (Mein- 


OT EZ TVA CTT) Se IRE EER RE nha UTS RAR PAN) CSS VE ers eae 339 
Geological collections, National Museum__---_______ appr pe ate 32 
Geological exploration in the Canadian Rockies_..---- -4____1-+1_-.-+ inhib 
Geological work in the Middle Atlantic States_L_.-_-+--_ +__+- 4 My ta 
Georgetown \ University 222. pahan Ue eee) Gade Ae a ee 36 
Gilbert, Chester (Gi 4 2 2 ea angi ge gee go a Oe gai xii 


Gill, De Lancey = xi, SL 


(RAY Ge oS SSS Se eee 


INDEX. 551 


Page 
eTEIGUO Mian etree Ue de ae, Se Oe ea xii 
Glass: and some of its problems ‘(dacksom) 20" 20S Set! PISGseit TE iORoRG 
Glass, Carter, Secretary of the Treasury (member of the Institution) -- xi 
SVC CHGETT gs 0 DAS 5 ile & Mes lek pla enaade nnee tenner takennelet rete i IM Me hS Ls 
Gx DIAC RS oa 5 0 YS ep pt yf eae ee ad sete etwteceeiecs ee SN Nk ee xii 
fepeLVES: HOR OT CO Ae ce ET ea ee os eit ir te le 79, 88 
5 EUAN SCS 01 A 6 RRR pele enlaces tea thet een secede het alas rN LO! 9,32, 
troy sudee Georse (Regent) xi, 2, 108, 109, 110, 111 
Greene, Representative Frank L. (Regent)... xi, 2, 109, 110 
Growth of plants, The influence of cold in stimulating the (Coville)-_-_ © 281 
Seen enna ee ee SN Oe, eee 
H. . 
(SJE, 7000 ema edaphic ei ie ed dt iceman ce 8 Ae INO0 4 
LET) B.C (LN sil eae a apie lt edi ded ch lar a ceecnendns os REALE See a 46 
PE MPRTUNUMREE UNC ere yee ac NE ee a Os i ie a 4 
igEriman. Alaska, xpedition,, Teports Ob. 2. 22500 i ee eae 13 
Eee On, VOUM yr ee Ae epg aL bat hy >: xii, 17, 45 
tenet ine me Mer Ca MCN cence a ee en 
Rieeemet OR  ee e  e ay) Oe ne al iia 
“HD+,” the. <A 70-miler with remarkable possibilities, developed at 
Dr. Graham Bell’s laboratories on the Bras d’Or Lakes, by William 
ESAS OMGNIT: 1 11 ct ea Late ace meant RMiniar any ter Tie AS 02 
PACED Sica cL DTS TATE Si hia ite ln i A ee i iS ea AI inside cs 9 
Henderson, John B. (Regent) _______-_-___ xi, 2,16, 31, 109, 112; 114 
Pee Ne ee ee ee ee lee 
eee Senresputative BY Oo. iu. Nyon he Se ee none Sui 
fpmaMme ete ees emia in oe as ee eee a aes cables Ma ideas xi 
Hitchcock, Dr. A. 8. (Floral aspects of British Guiana) _________-__-__ +" 293 
TE SGAS Ig Se ENA pac i fn a URE ND NI an Ny EN 31, 53 
PET T Ses T EN ie I eae ee a nee eS 4,105 
Hollister, Ned, superintendent, National Zoological Park____________ xii, 14, 78 
ATE Ses VOT M LA Tia ese: re le xii, 12 
(On the race history and facial characteristics 
of the aboriginal Americans) __-__-_________ 427 
EDA SH Mm TAN Vien eT ees ore 2 hag Oe oa xii, 18, 46, 58 
Houston, David Franklin, Secretary of Agriculture (member of the 
Hnstitution)422204=2 <n we oe 2 <2 VU) es OORT ETO OT OES ETO xi 
Houston,-Thomas: Truxton-—------_- 1G 0G | 10 NOURTOIG ES OIOP 4 ROI. 31 
lowers Di) ig Osea ee im a ate ee a ee EY fel Pome ED 
(Entomology and- the-war)-22-f2iiieo) piss) plotted 
lrdékas Dr. ~AleSs-= ==+ ~~ no oo ee eee ee te SE ee, ISSR OATS 
Ehughes! Bruce; bequests. 220 F900 AG SO ae SOE at BARS es 111 
ete funda ee ee eee eee ee UT 4,105 
Ehimboldt;-Alexander v0me 25 tens ee 10 
i 
Interior, Secretary of the (member of the Institution) ___-__._-_____+_ xi, 17, 40 
International catalogue of scientific literature_____--__---___~_ 4s aot 
15) 0 0) arene is senior ens oobeadnde Nope, 95 
[SDV GSP TEEN ONO aU lye S)-< eh Ors we Shs sens eee etme nse pone nel ian op Ale Lot EX; ter, Lose 
[eta aan aided EM Net ke iors Pmess ceed gl. dics tpl aabebit 


Interparliamentary exchanve Of olficial jOuridls. oe. ee ee 60 


552 INDEX. 


As 
Page. 
Jackson, Sir Herbert (Glass and some of its problems)--__-----_-___---_ 239 
Jacques, Mr. and Mrs. S. W_----~-----------=--+--------------------+ 47 
Jefferson, “Thomas. ot Lu eess ee ee 31 
FouNSOM: PEGE, Praca ester le te a = 10 
FORNIONS TIPO LOSS 2 cstee eee Pe Ny he eee ee ee BE eSe 16, 35 
Judd, Neil M____------------~-------------------------------=----- xii, 18, 47 
K. 
Keon, Bric. Gen, jéiferson Randolph: 58 nn ee eee Gdgmisi dt l: 
Keith, Arthur (The differentiation of mankind into racial types) -__--__ 443 
BC) ote) Be ans tc ot 2 st xe me SMT A as ANS a a als De ees es ee I 31 
TERTu WES, V2 Ae pi a ee ee xii 
Wo ben Dir Gc ee a ee eee . 26 
Veramer, Andrew 2.050023 eee eee ee ee ee 
L. 
Labor, Secretary of (member of the Institution)__-_-__+—__--___--____ xi 
1 SSID SISESS CERT EDU 1) SSOP ea a a ee ee a8 aa enna xii, 17, 43 
Lane, Franklin Knight, Secretary of the Interior (member of the Insti- 

ZT Ca 1) PAIS A a ER eT a ane a eh et pa aN bi 
Mangleyaimplane, MOC els OV a ee 15, 27 
1 GFE aed Ce Rt Sl eS II i CN EO eA te ing es A 113 
Lansing, Robert, Secretary of State (member of the Institution) ~_-_____ xi 
= SPS YES ESE RETR G75 PEPE wh Se Oa a ni NS cy eal be oo de Ls 29, 32 
SR SE OL EE Ss Se a eee eee ees POR es meres 52 
ew ton, (HW redericke Ups a eee para lai 
Libraries of the Institution and branches___________________ 1, 3, 14, 52; 90, 94 
daarary. Smithsonian 4 oy AOE SR A re Os 1, 3, 14 

RESTO Ty op so Ia Ny Be a ee Oa 90 
TOA AWE dh avee Met OW rE S311 11 aU EOS EN a pew Steg 2 
Little, Arthur D. (Natural resources in their relation to military sup- 

16) P=) ete pO SS ni Sg gs se WL BS A 211 
SESH ot 5 RS ean etyeee pS I ae A ea pre a ens 2 cee ers 
Lodge, Senator Henry Cabot (Regent)--____-______-__________ xi, 2A 09l aes 
MecMuldiinis "Boy Jecxillernsse 3. cts top tinve A By ney ee UE emi eg 67 
Mammoth, On the extinction of the (Neuville) __-_______________s__s ~~ 327 
Manchuria, The exploration of (Sowerby) —--—__--_ _ ss. .9e ee A455 
Manila: Bureau OFS Clem ees eee a See a age aa ee ae 32 
Mansfield, Richard, costumes. —- "4+... A3 222 oe eae 16, 31, 114 
Mansteht, Mrs. Richard. seu) oie es a ee Bee 16, 31, 114 
Marshall, Thomas R., Vice President of the United States (member of 

(olsYeks! Dalspm a) yao) 0) PSegmees eee cl Tea eA ge oe Ce Pe eee pee pele n ale ae Uy en xi, 1,.2,.109 
ZB ab oe BA clic! Pau Ope MENA MI Bs LMSC ei a seul Ue en ee EN eee Oe mee Ay OEE 2 AG 
Matiegka, Jindfich (The origin and beginning of the Czecho-Slovak 

POCO POLE Be a a LS IIHS LE ge 471 
TY foe) Waa YY § eae eee Ney Lom U STS esp Pose cs Nc l QUMay a MeanenteLoO Vereetler sO) peMOM Inia dn ee xii, 92 
Means. P hip AG 0G. SUE ais NDA ey en Sp a aS ee Se ar eee a 10 
ieekers Wri a tie eee he ane et iss Meee a: BA iy eee 35 
Meenness’ National Mii Se tame 000 sce UN See eA are SE | SS sea eas 35 


Meinertzhagen, R. (A preliminary study of the relation between geo- 
graphical distribution and migration, with special reference to the 
PATACAR CEC CRONE) 22 NE 339 


INDEX. 5538 


Page. 

MEMmiers “Gn ea reat taciom oe len) S AUT OM? VOGUE ESD) ORY a Sra xi 

Wo EURELIUEN Sins GET 05 bd feeb Stearate eile eapeee edaed ecaeek Silay she ak etree xii, 12,14 

TU ELVEN SOTO EO ree 4 GY GT 00 pe Se ae a api ee Seb Oa Mi le Mle bid xii, 44 

Wridie Cambrian COMCCHONS= 222 ==s 5-22-65 i>-— BOT Bs TORE ae 32 

Military supplies, natural resources in their relation to (Little)________ 211 

HUME T ee GLEN. Sag! foe et SE TR os ON Bade SURE 

Milpa agriculture, a primitive tropical system (Cook) _~__________-_ 307 

Mineral technology, collections, National Museum____--________-________ 34 

Modern theories of the spiral nebulae (Curtis) --_________________ 123 
Montgomery, James A. (The opportunity for American archeological re- 

SECM Eee ESUITIC yt eee nee ee eer er Soe ot Nees tA et Re eae eae 433 

REMPIOUAU VIE re weet ete A ence be Te ee ee xii, 40 

TO sPVD TEE aN TENS Sa ph GS GIR NS ga pl EM 20, 83, 86, 88, 120 

© LDPE LIES OH IRULE CSG 0.01) SR | RS a nO aU Ro aS 14, 37, 91. 

Mount Wilson astrophysical observing station______-____-_-___ 20 

Moureu, Ch. (A great chemist: Sir William Ramsey) _---_ 5 531 

RUPEE el AO 0g GAM eae aga cll ol mad ig epee eta i A ysl Ee 53 

gh PBS DS USS ara ot aang loa el te arc 51 

re ne Ges ey eat ee 32 

Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation__-__+___-_________- 31 

[494 ENS ESTEE URES eh nd tre ea i a heh 9 RE 67 

N. 

Namondl Acudemy Of Desifn, council” of sos a eee eee 30 

National Academy: OF SClenCes. on. 2 ni as SS et ee SSS ere ae eee ee 3 

National advisory committee for aeronautics____________-_____________ 3 

MunonaiGallery Of Att... 2 ee 11, 15, 16,29,’ 35, 445 

CULALOE™ Ol, 22 ae Me ns Bipetnieninee MReN i yc a xii 

National geological survey, The functions and ideals of a (Ransome)--_ = 261 

mien Meludriitis TOUmiGns CO. CS 31, 32 

National land reclamation in the United States, Progress in (Bissell)_.___ 497 

nora MISC tNia saa ates wee eer mn Le ES xii, 1, 5, 18, 14, 114 

CECIY YS YEI IW RE DNS et et ep pet ea nla ina tsetse Hh 29 

(ELUTE HO TS ye OE eta ela eli ale erga Melinda Ss Biel gh Xii 

TUONO HYSYS IN SS es8s a ELEY 6 US ath en len ch lb phe at a eo 2 28 

TOT iy ee eal a Le ee 9, 37 

DELO) SCAN COTO AS} es ia Pig PRA TAT 13, 36, 101 

TREY OVOVEAE seek TRS rs on a ea Na a Ba CoN SEP a EA 25 

use by. Government departments_________--___-_-_--- 36 

visitors ____ ad hs at ei acon het in ina ME gg N.S) 36 

ELIS ACU LOer oeak c ae eeee  e 26 

NWanonal Patk Service... oS s=— passin dbs ce pp he a al 17, 40 

Hire yetox Cha ANC ESCA TZ ING CO CURE De ee 8, 33 

Men TONal AO OotGHl (Parice: scan. ee UR eee ee Ka, 1) 5h; do, a9 

EYE SIS 0S ep epee opi pr css hn 64 

Animals in the Colection@—2 232.4 a 69 

FEET QYOVE RSW ON wpes OV 21850 (Smita en ere a a Ws) 

TPEY CAC ON YSIS CVE) GS eee ee ek 75 

TD LAL oe eee 93 

MT TUNO VL ea a a rn ns er 68 

SIS} OY ean mapara uo Weblog ee a ae a ee ae Se 64 

BARS) 0) tp ppaeeee entre ae alasatinilseioens sed cpaiaesa Uh yT S ME Da 74 


564 INDEX. 


Page 

Navy, Secretary of the (member of the Institution),.-...-~4-__s_ 4 _-e xi 

IO gy a a er 21 

Neuville, H.°(On ‘the extinction of the mammoth) 22 oe eth ee et RE PxG 

New Lork’ Botanical (Garden ee moo le eens De en ae ee gy page may 9, 32 
Nutting, William Washburn (The ‘“ HD-4.” A 70-miler with remarkable 
possibilities developed at Dr. Graham Bell’s laboratories on the Bras 


PEGE hgh Dizi: SS) jae au gamete Sees Meu ign ROMP TRNSSPUN RAD TRUE ASIII SUG ASE TCE YIN 205 


Oberholser, Harry C. (Glimpses of desert bird life in the Great Basin). 355 


iP: 
Padgett, Representative Lemuel P. (Regent)__--_____________ __. xi, 2, 109, 110 
Palmer, A. Mitchell, Attorney General.,(member of the Institution) —____ xi 
BOAT EG,  PTOL, hy), Wyle ees os gel A i 40 
112.721) am 5) 21 eee 5 a) See tle Pa Rl EAH UR ANON SS PS UD STN a YAN 35 
Permanent committee, Board of Regents of the Institution, report______ 111 
PT Sie Dahle a a ae ao a se a eR ee a 15, 30 
PN VSICA. Wales, "maa SOW LS cs ve uO cat 7 aga ac oc a 21, 80 
Pierce, Assistant Sibeeom, Gemellol ERM) SLT Tee cae tae 36 
GGL OT ADIs Bis Ee 8 PD NAN II Ne SL ee ee 32 
PERO UNO OS CTO EO ge so pL eh hp aha oh lee age =e re xii 
BEATE ECAR ae SO ATE La le 111 
Roore: Lung; Mawey, Ws same’ GeO res VV ee es 4, 5, 105, 106 
Povulerascieutiic lectures 0 8 cos Ns a 5 ee 
Postmaster General (member of the Institution) -________________-_ xi 
President of the United, States (member of the Instituion) —_~_ xi, 1, Ba 2G 
Presiding officer ex officio of the Institution__________________________ xi 
Printing and publication, Smithsonian advisory committee on________ 13, 103 
Proceedings of the Board. of \Regvents. 302 jo se ee ee 109 
RET GSSET, UT Ge ee Lee UU RE LVN Mee UNERER UNE NO SA AC ge ne 35 
Protection of wild birds, The necessity of State action for the (Collinge)_ 349 
Publications of the Institution and branches________________ 1, 6, 18, 16, 18, 36 
PEPORC Gee Ul See ell eee 98 
R. 

Racial types, The differentiation of mankind into (Keith)______________. 443 
Radium andthe electron '((Ruthertord) 2222 eens eee eee ea ee eee 193 
AEE TATTE: Vy MA LLU ees ta SOUND ch ana dk INOS SY a Tee ge A eee 
Ramsey, Sir William: A great chemist (Moureu)________ givin Cee th te a 581 
Paneertundy Een y “Wards 2 eee TOK TE NS 2 eee ee ne ea 15, 30 
FEEDING CL SLD SRM MD eS eo Hass Sele er tn ea aa ak re athe NTO A Lc 36 

Ransome, F. L. (The functions and ideals of a national geological sur- 
DIAS Pata eae TEAM ace Sete EU AE SI a ILS me a a pe a 261 
2 OMED RE OU OOO.) BY aN 2) eh Yel lesa apse ee eu a erga an jy eed ea a 92 
Rathbun, Dr Richa ra se = von wes bine es) Been pe la ae 14 21, 22 25ST ozs 
Rathbun, Richard “CB ews amy) yew eth pers ea erate ea sev ee oleae et ae 523 
AE a VT SET Cine elcid e NA ler t PRO  eN N 9, 31, 120 
Rayenel, W. deC., administrative assistant to the Secretary___________- xii, 


15, 25, 37, 111, 113 


ne OD inc thet pn, egg oe aN 


INDEX. 555 


Page, 

Reclamation, Progress in National land, in the United States (Bissell)___ 497 
PSECOUIICSS UM, COUN U ee ere I  ewrretyoer tne  alh Teaee eae a: 
Redfield, William Cox, Secretary of Commerce (member of the Institution) xi 
Berents OF the Mstitution, boird of Ce eee 5a aa La 
PLOCCC CITES eh re ee mean wrhin  en Seine ye 109 
report of executive committee__._____/______ 105 
report of permanent committee_______________ 1411 
4B BURG 80) a a a co SA A A A PA Oh as eS aa 67 
ECUORIITCHAUISOTL: VLMys eine tis shod Crook ar relea ne ete eeu Ole MEN oa Mace eon nS A 4,105 
Meme IME ONE PLC VL ASM oe et cen Sunes aa tin ic eee em Eeate AN be Mere ana ere Sg 115 
Teport of the Secretary or the Institution. 22 oe BEN ee a 
2 EES BRUNE) oy (COioue OS wre CIOS Leama ae ae em er pa niente dren ce cls cas maa made ior ira apes Mehet NN se. 5 12 
ReSeaLC nes aid: CXPOlOEHELONS fe aan Se nein te Wnts eee 6 
SES Gilles Cyr) Dili bei myles anon eapnmeen th alle ella el i cd A cae, i 
TDS) eT 0 den ciel sae ra ole pon de apg Nal dela at SUN oy cn ae gol 4,105 
Richimond, Ore Charles W222 ors rie ae wast lm i eos pe) deh 8 dbp ge Xie 
TTL FET ype 9) 0123 pl org lle gl een oe dian dN ah od, ee ah 
LPT EAEAS ae BSCE alec cago eae tarda ur man a tae algal este aki ciara vat ania ee.) 48 
Roberts, Representative Ernest W. (Regent)_-___-_-_-- 110 
PODER ES VELSS) ERG) Gta lets unkebeuemna ee eben fe ee eee Reece et 46 
5 SCOYEZ ET SS honda Lav a Ge) a cnn Ui ne de nk St era i tac aa pa Nr eek ee gl ie, 30 
EROOSEV ENE TMG ITO Tei cM a a as LL ee ada 2 oat 11 
OOSeVCli. Mh COD ORC ae twee ae aa Pe ke a a hs 3, 9, 14.12 
CAD YSTE od Ds rated JRE Te OVO eR HA en MR eR, OO cs SS xii, 9, 10, 32 
PROVE SOCIO by ie Weal Oe ee hee ee eee a 21 
Rutherford, Sir Ernest (Radium and the electron) _-~__0 2 ee 1938 

S. 

Br PireOnG gutin AG eOEoe Kes 6 Sac 8 se oD 4, 105 
apis, (Or Mdward 2 ee ere Ded Ae iia) OG 46 
Bneent, ELOMen Hy oes hy ee oy Se a Agen cee 46 
SVG DS SEN 7a 6 aN LR Reape PLP Ua ON eA OO NE 32 
SHG ICUISE, NUE V0 Sd SA el Naf) CR eee ee oes nS Ee ratte AN ee eee 92 
SSCL UGS RMD PNB) 2M eae NUE a De ah OB SULA) NAP SE poe I Oe xii 
St EHEI REA GATE Si CES 0) Ser OY 25 01 ERS ATE PE RS La a a 3 
NSS) SUSIE USRSE s SHIE TE a0 V2 1 a ISS LeU ro ee oR ce te A xii, 50 
SEES HOE VO UIE LIS LGU tol OMe etre ee eerie ee MEE ee xa 
xii, 1, 12, 31, 32, 37, 53, 63, 78, 89, 92, 94, 97, 108, 109, 112, 114 
Seventeen-year locust, The (Snodgrass) __~ 12-2 eee 381 
RSOETER TubZ im UO) Teo ReMi enemas Na eee A LAR esa a 2h UAE SIS a a 9 
SUING eS gTeE EEN Ops ONY Glas cS AS SHE i ee ON ey RR yd xii 
Slaughter, N. H. (Wireless, telephony) 3.-==ssoewe2 sob ae 177 
Sinshsomtund: 1.25 6p 40 yo po os ye we | BP eae Sc koe 4, 105 
SmMbhson. Tames pa ey hee ge ee 1 
Smithsonian African expedition___—_— crews beet ts ee at te 3,9 
mimnithsonian gnnyal reports. ee ee 13, 99 
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge_.__--.----------++~-------=+--+ 13, 98 
Smithsonian Gestablishment—— ey ey Mic: 
Smithsonian Exploration Pamphlet -:-— a Pa a el cng Ns a ee 6 
PS SUVTE EUS COUNT ATM, VU ROTS ED Tey eg DAs Nae ll 1, 3, 14 
Veponte Ft ha nee yrs eee 90 


556 INDEX. 


Page. 
Sritthsonian: Physical Tables t= 2.25 Ser es tae eee 2 ernie tees eet ner eae tee 
Snodgrass, R. H. (The seventeen-year locust) ________-___-_-_ 381 
Solar Constant measurements, Calama, Chile_~_.- = 85 
Mount? Wilsons Calitesarmn ene ert riven 82 
Sowerby, Arthur de C. (The exploration of Manchuria) _____________ 455 
Spiral nebulae, Modern theories of the (Curtis)_________________ 123 
SpDUrleOn, HIMES) RODS ce 2S Lite cme, Semler Se eee eee St oe tee SE ea 69 
Sesh ry Cll coy) UD = Gas 1p ST ay sg 48 
State, Secretary of (member of the Institution) ______________________ xi 
States Relations Service, Department of Agriculture__________________ 16, 34 
Stewneser, DF. eons es Ue oe Pres ae ec OME re ate a etal xii, 14 
SFeVEDSOnMsHIVITS: AME © 22a 0 eae gh a el Sp 45 
Stone, Senator William Joel (Regent) --_________________ 109, 110, 112, 113 
ETO D;. METS, Ae OV GING aie 5h Ah io ay aad catia CL, eel ee a ad Ines a 19, 65 
Superintendent, National Zoological, Park 25 5s ee ee 78 
Surgeon General, War Department, office of_____-_____________________ 16, 33 
ASHE Cer SPAR SRE (AEB leg ts Se eer ae IGM rt ne aL oC URh RMON Rai ERA teye IL Dal ye 5, 29, 92 
NS AEE UCE Sis 11 0 6 RES mS Se UD A PA UNF ager UE ok CL papier APN SS ha 29 
CSAs OHO 0 BBA Dy Ag (Cu) 00S) 8 DNase st NAL BA eda leaf xii, 17, 40 
Syracuse MUSUD) pf JArE so es 9 ets Meee ey ROR imsacy Oe oe ee 30 
T. 
PBR et SPIT RRAES TUCO Ses ee elas Spe 8 eS ha ee es ee 36 
TCE S08 Wc fo pa NO an Hohe) ey oto 46 
Textile collection, National Museum-_ —_-_ 2-22 28) 33 
Thomas: Senator Charles: S.. CRegent))s = os eee xi, 2) 110; tS 
Treasury sDeparbment sanz hele ot Fon Cape ad te Be ee ee 26, 27 
Treasury, Secretary of the (member of the Institution) __-______________ xi 
De re RW ts eh ie oe ea Es it bere eee a eng EY Rae 3 
True, W....PB::.(editor:of the; Institution) t+ tone a eo eee aT xi, 14, 103 
MriixtoninCapt. 2Dnomacyd 1 Wl alan ees Oe a perenne ee 31 
U. 
Wniversal rilm Manutacrurine Comets. 2 = saat a eee ee 9 
V. 

Vail Week, Jaen yp be) 0 Pe Sa eas SRP Fe ee ee 40 
Vice President of the United States (member of the Institution) ~-____ xi, 1, 109 
W. 

Walcott, Dr. Charles D., Secretary of the Institution__._--__________-. Ria 

1, 12, 31, 32, 37, 58, 63, 78, 89, 92, 94, 97, 108, 109, 112, 114 
‘Waleott,~Lieut:- Benjamin Stuart... 16, 30 
War activities of the National Museum___-~-_--+__ 26 
War. Departmentan nee a 27 
War relics, collection of, National Museum. 02s 15527 
War Risk Insurance, Bureau-of. 2+ 15, 26, 32, 36, 112 
War, Secretary of (member of the Institution) ~~~ ~~ 4+ ee xi 
Whites, Dorr, - Amie wees ee a 110 


White, Edward Douglass, Chief Justice of the United States (member 
of the Tustitution) 2222s. a SOOO BOS RUoey xi, 1, 2, 109,112 


INDEX. 557 


Page 
pve, Etonvy. (tecent oes sara se be eee Ky 2, Dy dels 
SSPE CIR MEP P ea OS 00 SI Be I a a a EC LY 85 
Wilson, William Bauchop, Secretary of Labor (member of the Institu- 
(ALAS) | eI SS SS cn pCR aE xi 
Wilson, Woodrow, President of the United States (member of the Insti- 
Rs TM Bah Co Tae a eae ta a sree as eet aL AANA SNR Ee Pll Bg tisay mASu ILI 
Wind pressure upon projectiles, experiments on, at Fort Monroe________ 2 
SE ESICSSeLeLeLHOMye (NS LAT LeI) a ee ee a alr 
BOCA CHET TTT ey EMC Vy CO LAS TD ieee re aE Ni gS ol 199 
epi Wa Pe re wie See ee ee 15, 27 
De 

EESER BS IUGR I Be IR CUI DA OC A oO eo 36 
Z. 

OULOS GAL Parkes NAGI On li cy 2 Ces Lae aa ee xii; 15) 2; 13, 195419 

EEC CESS HO WIS ob ee aire Moe a0 Ben eae Noe 64 

animals in the collectione 222040 we ee 69 

ENP OE GA UN TTT CC Sos i aE 76 

G04 1) OKI Ss CaS) OM) Sf saiee te Nu RE ER i A se 63) 

HURL GPE yt eg ed aR EL SA se me oes 93 

SE) CONE CSHB eS NOPE SAY | SOCORRO Pep a a 68 

EPO OTS Ea ee LU ae Paice Saal a eke SOCAN at Te 64 

si SS0 1G Oy ish cere pS NMC My Pap ES 74 


: ‘od PhO 
te omens Siclaamnieas rs? | 
Pini neak Sep tolaceharoTP GANG MATE 
ea a Mowery Cimried Of roe AES 88 Pets atom 
Shr ae: S12 inabh Ve 10 a9 sinsetbeoqzs etitoatort 

me TPN Oh theta ial snaltnadachaaett le ple) reste 

 Seuvblary of fhamaber: of the Snaritutln,. 2209 stall: 
Wan Relailone Serica, Hmunthnenk of, Aglaia 3 
San tawmen, 19. Finite isabel ad aN aie CT ae a 
PROSTAR Oo ails hin hh in cg ei ESO Hg eK 

jue, Seana Willie Joe (Seghntt. Snare aU a TED 

a PREPA i NOUR, elck icine op wats eer 5 hile 


Em oa Att ae A Ah hy ms opp ert hl gm IP i te 


coinage Matlanat Doohiptent Bark. 


SY. Shar PSO eae: RS 
my Aa > War Depatmeut, OEY Of oye a 
ee ee or ae ae Heined } 


erin: eee ~ nnn BOLBBGOOR 
x : ‘ ita rae is a ae OI ITTOS oy a BER See ah emt 
Py RRR eit 


ae arn aa reintectens nie AONE J jrigttogeat 
teri Roe duile ddtct asada etn es A EO ORE RE. 
erin tt ens ak bli at ba ns a a sina oi ON 
FO neither ak tn i is pte pe lS 
ee i Breen Bifocal tess enome an a aloe nea otnes LF ROGER “4 
PPh LOA ce SSSA ee OEY nw 
Bier ite: METEOR OR. feat SIE + Reet SSG, 


wa: Baseheeh tae. x HRelig’y. ife 
Prem Biy LOI PAR sau ae nc 
‘ik feuony: Secretar at! the Comber ot the Thats alo sisi hind ad ; 
KS NE Sap B82, «A | a MeN ERR SRN UR NVC ae NVR een Se 

Sia, PE Be eee ct ieee Rte iy ttor  cis 

Truxioa, Capt. Laos 


he EDEL Cae eae * ; ‘gta uw Seaplane 


niverat Fike Manntactaiag ¢ 


Lo amd vate ee ar We lo ne Pe ie > ui 


Sele ee itacr cL ae ee Sr ae pe 5 Spi ineathiicey xscsuiad 


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TEV Anes aaa pear et ae ‘Teh tetion. PR REHM S Saag A.) 
1, 12, Bh, BD; RSS RCT, Ge, B24 97, 109) 28 : 
vsti. Teak. Aho eaetiee os ah Baa civ ob ep he ml ap 
acter iiion. ok Bhsetia tied ed eee é 
LGR PROM wet lieu ee heey 
HACE ISSR OaD WaT, <I ee er aT mei ies 
AB asin ee aio hc re 
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i ¥ JS ha Ae Vie ate ak ‘ pectin! , ‘ ee 
an mdiwase Onova Sey Cones Peebtee att iy Suited arrive {rw 
nye fees DL ed eR ae baad acini Se Cage bot MA Sh i Peace ph 


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